Real wages keep going down in Kazakhstan

Recall that the annual decline in the value of wages in Kazakhstan was 2pct in January-March this year.

At the same time, the average monthly nominal wages of the Kazakh residents grew 4.4pct, however, the basic consumer goods and services price rise turned out to be higher, and the real value of the wage and salary income in the country happened to be lower.

The national wage labor market is trying to get back, however, the growth rates are rather weak.

The actual number of employees in Kazakhstan in January-June this year equaled 3.5 million people. This is only 1.5pct more than the number a year ago.

It is noteworthy that the labor market size showed a steep decline last year, when the average annual decrease was 5.4%. Over the last 5 years, the maximum number of employees in the country, 3.6 million people, was recorded in 2015.

In Q2 2017, the growth in real wages was registered in two regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in Aktobe (1.3pct) and Mangystau regions (0.8pct).

In addition to the above, the residents of Atyrau region experienced the greatest decline in the purchasing power in April-June. There, the real wages fell 13.3% as compared to Q2 2016.

In Astana, the salaries of workers began to value 0.1 percent lower, taking into account the inflation. In Almaty, the real wages dropped more considerably, minus 5.2% year on year.

Since this year, the Productive Employment and Mass Entrepreneurship Development Program has started in Kazakhstan.

The program timeline is until 2021. After its completion, it is expected that the unemployment rate in Kazakhstan will not exceed 4.8pct; the share of human resources having basic, secondary, general and primary education in the labor force will not exceed 20pct; the share of non-productive population among the self-employed will not exceed 10%.