Kazakhstan’s labor market welcomes over 13,000 foreign workers

Kazakhstan had welcomed over 13,000 foreign citizens working under permits issued by local administrative authorities as of November 1, 2023.

Among the many kinds of licenses issued for the recruitment of foreign workers, 345 fall under the first category for managers and their deputies, and 2,588 fall under the second category for heads of structural divisions.

The majority of foreign workers went into the third (specialists) and fourth (skilled workers) categories, with 5,767 and 608 people, respectively. A total of 2,078 people were employed for seasonal labor, including 1,643 people hired through corporate transfers.

Currently, 1,612 Kazakhstani employers use these permits, employing approximately 468,100 Kazakhstani individuals, accounting for 97.2% of the entire workforce.

In terms of economic activity, construction employs the most foreign workers (25.4%), followed by agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (12.1%), mining and quarrying (9.3%), manufacturing (9.1%), and professional, scientific, and technological activities (5.8%).

These labor migrants are primarily from China (29.8%), Uzbekistan (13.6%), Turkey (9.6%), and India (9.4%).