Astana, 12 November. Unemployment in Kazakhstan in the third quarter of 2026, calculated under the International Labour Organization methodology, was 4.5%, and 9,403.4 thousand people were employed in the economy, the Bureau of National Statistics said.
The labour force, according to the sample survey, numbered 9,849.0 thousand people. Of the employed, 7,247.7 thousand (77.1%) were employees and 2,155.7 thousand (22.9%) were self-employed, almost one in four. The employment rate among the population aged 15 and over reached 64.3%. Compared with the third quarter of last year, employment rose by 73.3 thousand people, mostly among employees.
Most people are employed in trade (16.8%), education (13.3%), industry (12.6%) and agriculture (10.5%). Among young people aged 15–34 unemployment was 2.9%, and the share of young people who are neither working nor studying (NEET) was 5.6%.
At the end of September 346.9 thousand unemployed were registered with the employment authorities, or 3.5% of the labour force. This figure is lower than the ILO measure because the survey also counts those who have no work and are actively looking but are not registered. The gap between the labour force and the employed in the Bureau’s data gives about 446 thousand people without work who were looking for it and ready to start (our calculation from the published figures).
What it means: Kazakhstan has two unemployment measures: 4.5% under the ILO methodology, which comes from the survey, and 3.5% registered with employment services. They do not contradict each other but measure different things.
Background: The ILO methodology counts as unemployed those who had no gainful occupation (work), were actively looking for it and were ready to start; the Bureau gives this definition in a note to the release.
