The issues of employment of the population were considered at the Government session chaired by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Tamara Duisenova said that the growth of the labor force in Kazakhstan labor market in recent years has increased significantly. So, if in 2016-2020 this figure averaged 36.4 thousand people, in 2021 it has already reached the mark of 76 thousand people. This growth is primarily due to the inflow of young people born after the 2000s.

At present, work to expand employment and stimulate the creation of new jobs is carried out within the framework of national projects and other state programs. In particular, the national projects on entrepreneurship development, "Strong regions - the driver of the country's development" and the development of the agro-industrial complex are showing high results. Besides, practically all the regions have overfulfilled the plan within the framework of realization of the President's order to create 100 jobs for 10 thousand citizens living in towns and districts.

As of Oct. 1 of this year about 654 thousand people were employed in the economy of the country. All active national projects are digitized, the level of filling of vacancies placed on the Electronic Labor Exchange is 87%.

In order to support the labor market in the coming years it is planned to concentrate efforts on providing proactive employment services using the Digital Family Card and covering at least 100 thousand young people annually with the measures of state support for training, employment and starting their own business.

The Minister of National Economy Alibek Kuantyrov, Akims of Almaty region Marat Sultangaziyev, Kyzylorda region Nurlybek Nalibayev and North Kazakhstan region Kumar Aksakalov made reports on this topic.

Prime Minister stressed that on the instructions of the Head of State, the effectiveness of government agencies and akims of all levels will be evaluated on the basis of the indicator on the creation of new jobs.

"The work on promotion of employment must be based on the needs of the labor market. At the same time, it is extremely important to cover the socially vulnerable segments of the population with appropriate measures," Smailov said.

According to him, this year more than 269,000 jobs are to be created within the national projects. So far more than 203,000 people have already been employed, but 175,000 of them got temporary jobs.

"We should focus our efforts on increasing the number of permanent jobs. It is important to rely on digital technologies in this matter. All services to promote employment should be digitized on the basis of full integration of systems of government agencies," Prime Minister said.

He added that after joining resources of the Digital Family Card, Electronic Labor Exchange and Integrated Job Creation Card it will be possible to offer vacancies through electronic notifications to all the unemployed.

"This work needs to be accelerated. The application-free forms of employment assistance should also be introduced, and it is necessary to ensure full accessibility of such services from smartphones," Alikhan Smailov noted.

According to the Prime Minister, special attention should be paid to introduction of new mechanisms for youth employment, as annually about 300,000 young people with no work experience enter the labor market.

He noted that according to the results of the first half of the year, the highest rates of NEET category youth are observed in Ulytau, East Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kyzylorda, Zhambyl and Almaty regions. At the same time, these regions are in need of specialists.

"The akimats of these regions should take control of the issue of training and employment of young people. Young people are insufficiently informed about employment assistance measures, so it's necessary to intensify information and expository work in this direction," Prime Minister noted.

Summing up the meeting, Alikhan Smailov instructed to develop new approaches to employment and include them in the draft Comprehensive Plan of labor market development, to automate and reduce the time of relevant services.

The Ministries of Labor, Digital Development and Akimats were instructed to ensure modernization of infrastructure of employment and complete digitalization of services of employment centers.

"In general, we must change the ideology of employment, the attitude to work in society. We need to work on the formation of a positive image of a man of labor, the value of all professions," Alikhan Smailov concluded.