Category: Author’s post

Priority tasks for ensuring safe working conditions in production are outlined during the year of vocational professions

Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov chaired a government session focused on ensuring safe working conditions in production and the digitalization of the labor sector.
As the head of the Government noted during the meeting, the Head of State set specific tasks to raise the prestige of the Working Person by declaring 2025 the Year of Vocational Professions.
Аccording to Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population Svetlana Zhakupova, the measures being taken have led to a decrease in workplace injuries by 16.9% as of May 1, 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan calls for using modern approaches to ensuring workplace safety.
Bektenov reminded that outdated equipment, delayed modernization, and the absence of new technologies often lead to an increase in injuries. Therefore, early warning and danger alert systems help respond quickly in case of emergency risks. Also, employers are obliged to ensure labor safety, automation, and digitalization that eliminate injuries and, especially, human fatalities to reduce injuries and accidents.
As the Prime Minister noted, it is necessary to develop a unified approach to organizing labor protection and to ensure the interconnection of information systems in this area. Simultaneously, of all government bodies, regional akimats, and enterprises must work together. He also drew attention to strengthening the monitoring of labor law violations, including through the use of the Digital Map of Enterprises. Bektenov instructed the Ministry of Digital Development, together with government bodies, to create an integrated digital ecosystem in the field of labor protection by December 1 of this year.
He emphasized the extremely important role of employers’ participation in labor protection matters, as they must ensure the conclusion of mandatory insurance contracts for employees against workplace accidents. Olzhas Bektenov added that enterprises should actively implement the principle of zero injuries, as well as an assessment and management system of occupational risks that meet international standards.
After the Government session, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population and relevant government agencies got the instructions to develop legislative amendments by November 1 of the current year to prevent employers from concealing workplace injuries.
Also, the Ministry of Industry and Construction got the instructions to ensure the mandatory installation of special equipment for occupational safety and health at enterprises in the industrial and construction sectors by the end of the year.
Finally, the task of the Ministry for Emergency Situations was to inspect enterprises for compliance with industrial safety standards by the end of the current year.

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Unemployment below 4% and average salary above 3,500 GEL by 2028 are the programmatic goals

As Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said during a government meeting, elimination of poverty once and for all and economic growth are key national goals. The programmatic goal is to reduce unemployment below 4% and to raise the average salary above 3,500 GEL by 2028.
As Kobakhidze said, continuation of Georgia’s economic development is very important, as the country is a leader not only in the broader region but also across Europe in terms of economic growth.
The Prime Minister reported that the economic growth in April was 7.5%. Meanwhile, the average growth for the first four months was 8.8%, what makes Georgia one of the frontrunners in terms of economic growth, both regionally and Europe-wide. So, the goal is to maintain this pace of development.
The increase of the number of employed persons in Georgia between 2022 and 2024, over a span of three years, was 185,000, and the growth of the average salary was 917 GEL. Undoubtedly, a broad segment of the population feels the country’s economic growth, and it is necessary to keep moving forward at this pace. Economic growth is the key factor to eliminating poverty which is one of the primary national goals. To achieve that, it needs to ensure continued rapid economic development.
The targets of the government are very clear: the programmatic goal is to bring unemployment below 4% and to raise the average salary above 3,500 GEL by 2028. Fully accepting the responsibility, they expect to achieve them at the current pace.
Meanwhile, GeoStat published new data concerning poverty for 2024. They reported the poverty rate at 11.8% in 2023. In 2024, it decreased by 2.4 percentage points and achieved a single-digit figure of 9.4% for the first time since the 1990s. Kobakhidze reminded that in 2012, when Georgian Dream came into power, more than 1.1 million people in Georgia were living below the poverty line. Today that figure has decreased below 350,000.
Recognizing the evidence of the progress, the Prime Minister highlights that the government’s ultimate goal is to eliminate poverty entirely in Georgia. They are moving rapidly in that direction, having an absolutely realistic specific programmatic goal in this area — poverty reduction below 4% by 2028. Irakli Kobakhidze promised that at this pace, it is possible to eradicate poverty in Georgia in the medium term.

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Average working and leisure hours in Kazakhstan

Analysis made by Finprom.kz investigates average working hours across different employment sectors in Kazakhstan and typical leisure activities.
There were 9.3 million registered employed citizens (a 1.3% increase compared to the same period last year) in Kazakhstan, as of the first quarter of 2025. Nearly 7.7 million people work standard hours ranging from 36 to 40 per week (a 7.5% year-on-year increase).
On the contrary, there were fewer people working overtime (a 4.9% decrease).
An average working week in Kazakhstan is now 39 working hours (one hour more, compared to last year). For men the average number is 40 hours weekly, for women it is about 38. Working overtime is more frequent among employees (on average 41 hour per week, compared to 36 hours for the self-employed).
The longest working week, averaging 43 hours, is in mining sector. Wholesale and retail trade, transport, logistics, and administrative services report average 42 hours. The working week in manufacturing, water supply and waste management, construction, and hospitality is about 41 hours.
The shortest working week (33 hours on average) is in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. People work around 39 hours in finance, insurance, and education.
An average of 42 hours per week makes industrial, construction, and transport workers, as well as operators and drivers top the list of occupational groups. Then follow trade and service sector employees with 41 hours. After them come farmers, fishermen, and unskilled laborers with average 36 hours, while managers, civil servants, and technical staff work around 40 hours. Specialists work 39 hours a week on average.
The number of Kazakhstanis who work less than a standard week (approximately 332,800) decreased by half compared to the previous year due to lack of work (122,800 people), reduced hours (56,700), sufficient income (34,200), employer decisions (31,500), and flexible schedules (18,300).
Official 2024 statistics reports that the average Kazakhstani spends most of their weekday attending to personal needs such as sleep, hygiene, and meals, totaling 12 hours and 6 minutes on workdays and 13 hours and 57 minutes on weekends.
The largest share is taken up by sleep: 8 hours and 48 minutes on weekdays and more than 10 hours on weekends. Around 1 hour and 49 minutes during the week and 2 hours and 5 minutes on days off are accounted for meals and drinks and approximately 1 hour and 21 minutes on weekdays and 1 hour and 33 minutes on weekends for hygiene and self-care.
Work takes the second place in terms of daily time use, averaging 5 hours and 16 minutes on weekdays and just 36 minutes on weekends.
Third place belongs to leisure activities (cultural events, sports, reading, and media consumption)— 2 hours and 40 minutes on weekdays and nearly 4 hours on weekends.
Household responsibilities also take considerable time from Kazakhstan is, especially on weekends (about 3 hours and 32 minutes on unpaid domestic work and family care).

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A new employment strategy is being created in Ukraine

The process of creating a new employment strategy is taking place in Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Economy, its main goal is to give the chance to work to citizens who are struggling to find employment, particularly veterans, individuals with disabilities, women, older adults, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and Ukrainians living abroad. Around 4.65 million IDPs are registered in Ukraine currently, and nearly two million of them are of working age. Moreover, over 6.9 million citizens live abroad. As the Ministry of Economy says, the aim of this new strategy is making inclusion essential for sustainable economic growth, not optional.
They are proposing various solutions: enhancing career counseling, adopting internship programs, promoting professional retraining, implementing retraining initiatives for veterans, and endorsing integration programs, among others. As a result, as the State Employment Service has reported, there was an increase in job vacancies that offer housing benefits in response to the personnel shortage in Ukraine.
The Unified Vacancy Portal currently shows over 230,000 job postings available daily, including more than 2,000 job openings with housing provision listed since the start of the year. The increase compared to the same period last year attains 30%. Employees found 3,500 vacancies including those offering housing benefits over the past year, especially in Kyiv and the surrounding areas.

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Processing industry offers a quarter of jobs on Ukrainian labor market

The study of the labor market for 2024-2025 by the State Employment Service (SES) reports 116,000 job offers on the Ukrainian labor market with 22% of them in processing industry enterprises.

Other sectors offering a significant share of vacancies are healthcare (13.6%), transport and warehouse management (9.4%), water supply and sewage (7.6%), electricity, gas and steam supply (6.3%) and education (slightly more than 5%).

Opposingly, the share of open vacancies in the service sectors, hotel and restaurant business, real estate and IT is less than 1%.

Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions form the greatest demand for workers (13.0% and 11.5%).

Notably, enterprises in the water supply, public administration and healthcare sectors offered the largest share of open vacancies at the time of the survey (over 40%). In contrast, enterprises in the information, real estate, trade, and hotel and restaurant sectors offered the smallest share of open vacancies.

Mykolaiv (34.2%), Rivne (34.1%) and Volyn (34.1%) regions have the largest shares of enterprises with open vacancies.

Simultaneously, Kyiv (10.4%), Zaporizhia (16.9%), Vinnytsia (18.9%) and Odesa (19.9%) regions have the smallest shares of enterprises with open vacancies. This fact is due to a traditionally high concentration of qualified personnel in the capital, which reduces the need for open vacancies. Particularly, remote work at many enterprises has reduced the need for active recruitment. As researchers say, vacancies were rapidly filled because of high competition in the labor market.

As for problems creating the lack of the workforce, it is possible to cite the emigration of the working-age population and the lack of significant investments in development.

Despite the opportunities of the trade and transport sectors to fill vacancies more quickly, economic activity is gradually declining in Vinnytsia and Odessa regions.

From the point of the employment structure, the age group of 25-60 years had the main share of employees in 2024 (80.5%). Only 6.4% of workers were youth under 25 years old. The water supply, education and medicine sectors had the largest number of older employees.

In general, the survey results showed a 1.1% decrease in the number of employees during 2024.

Almost 55,000 employers were surveyed by the State Employment Service during the employer survey that lasted from December 17, 2024 to January 31, 2025. They selected economically active enterprises with an average number of employees of ten or more people without relation to the defense complex.

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Kazakhstan’s sectoral gaps persist despite young workforce growth

Kazakhstan’s youth labor market is a crutial issue for the country’s ongoing economic transformation. Analysts from Finprom.kz report approximately 1.8 million young people aged 15 to 28 employed across the country in 2024 (0.6% increase compared to the previous year).
Almaty has the highest concentration of young workers (243,200 employed young people, 5% up from 2023). Turkestan region follows it. Opposingly, the lowest rate of youth employment is in the Ulytau, North Kazakhstan, and Zhetysu regions.
77.7% of the total number of employed youth (1.4 million) are salaried employees. Also, there are 331,900 young individual entrepreneurs, 58,300 self-employed workers, 2,700 founders or participants in economic partnerships, joint-stock companies, or cooperatives, and 2,400 engaged in private practice.
The number of professionals among employed young people is 424,400 (a 1.3% decrease from the previous year). Then follow service and sales workers (291,700), unskilled laborers (281,700), technical and support staff (195,100), and industrial, construction, and transport workers (142,600).
In industry sectors, youth primarily work in wholesale and retail trade, automotive repair, education, and agriculture, including forestry and fishing. Utilities (water and electricity supply) and real estate have the lowest rate of youth employment.
The number of unemployed individuals aged 15 to 28 decreased to 62,000 (by 6.7% from 2023) in 2024, with the unemployment rate at 3.7% among 16 to 24-year-olds and 3% among those aged 25 to 28 (the overall unemployment rate for the working-age population in Kazakhstan is 4.7%).
The highest number of unemployed youth (11,100) is in Almaty, then comes Astana (7,800) and the Almaty region (7,700). The lowest youth unemployment figures were reported in Ulytau, Pavlodar, and North Kazakhstan regions.
According to the report, 18,200 young people spent from one to three months on job hunting in 2024, 16,200 from three to six months, 16,000 less than a month, 7,500 looked for an employment for more than six months, and 4,000 had been looking for work for over a year.
Totally, there were 448,200 unemployed Kazakhstani citizens in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the unemployment rate at 4.2% among men (211,100) and 5.1% among women (237,100). 35 to 54 (256,900 people) and 55 to 64 (69,700) were the most affected age groups.
Family responsibilities (61,400), layoffs or company closures (50,300), and difficulty finding suitable jobs (112,500) were the most frequent reasons of unemployment. Domestic duties (44,200), health issues (17,500), and challenges securing employment post-graduation (16,600) were other contributing factors.
It is important to develop flexible employment policies suitable for the evolving labor market and to enhance conditions for self-employment and youth entrepreneurship to reduce youth unemployment in the long term.

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Employers have five new obligations towards employees due to the amended law

Employers in Serbia must fully align their operations with the new provisions of the Law on Occupational Health and Safety by Wednesday, 7 May, focused on enhanced employee protection, the introduction of preventive measures, and more effective control of working conditions. Particularly, remote and home-based work is now clearly regulated by the law. Also, the […]

Taxes for high earners will increase in Kazakhstan

A second package of amendments to the tax legislation was proposed by the Kazakh Ministry of National Economy on April 25, including a proposition to increase the individual income tax rate for high earners.

The Ministry of National Economy stated that citizens with lower incomes will pay personal income tax at a lower rate than high-paid workers, without specifying the exact income levels that will be subject to the higher rate. However, Minister Serik Zhumangarin proposed to introduce an increased rate of 15% for employees with annual income exceeding 8,500 monthly calculation indices (MCI).

Currently, they value one MCI in Kazakhstan at 3,932 KZT ($7.64), but there are plans to rise it to 4,129 KZT ($8) by 2026, due to coming into force of the new Tax Code. These figures let calculate the threshold for the increased personal income tax rate starting at 35 million KZT per year (approximately $68,000) or 2.9 million KZT per month ($5,600) in 2026.

Nevertheless, they will tax at the increased 15% rate only the portion exceeding the 2.9 million KZT threshold. The tax rate for the income up to that threshold will remain standard (10%).

With the introduction of a progressive scale, the Ministry of National Economy hopes to increase tax revenues by 70 billion KZT per year (approximately $13.5 million).

Additionally, optimizing deductions for medical, education, and social contributions were also proposed by the ministry. They will introduce a single basic deduction of 30 MCI per month instead of the current deduction of 14 MCI and eliminate all additional deductions in order to simplify accounting procedures and reduce the administrative burden for individuals and employers.

Currently, a portion of employees’ salary equivalent to 14 MCI, or about 55,000 KZT ($106), can be exempted from taxation, upon request. The proposed changes, starting in 2026, will change this amount to 123,800 KZT ($239) per month.

There was also a proposition to strengthen liability for violations related to compulsory social and health insurance and the use of special tax regimes. Totally, 71 amendments to the draft new Tax Code and related legislation have been proposed by the government, along with 67 amendments to the current Tax Code.

According to the previous report of the Times of Central Asia, the Mazhilis (the lower house of the Kazakh parliament) approved the draft of the new Tax Code in its first reading in early April. However, debates about the proposed reforms continue, as well as criticism from deputies, experts, and entrepreneurs.

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