Analysts presented an overview of the Kazakhstani labor market in the IT sector
The HeadHunter Kazakhstan company has prepared an analysis of the IT industry labor market based on employer vacancies and resumes of applicants posted on the website hh.kz. Analysts found out what salaries business offers to IT specialists, how much the rates of an experienced and a beginner IT specialist differ, and also how high the competition among applicants is in 2023. Calculation period 01.01.23 - 31.10.23.
Vacancies for IT specialists accounted for 6% of the total number of all vacancies for 2023. This is more than 28 thousand, which is 16% more than last year.
Most often, vacancies offered full-time employment (85%) and only 10% of vacancies have the opportunity to work remotely. Similar numbers for remote work were observed last year. And in 2021 there were 3% fewer such vacancies. If we look at the wishes of the job seekers themselves in the Republic of Kazakhstan, then 22% would prefer to work remotely.
Companies that were in greater need of IT specialists belong to the following industries:
— Information technology, system integration, Internet — 35%
— Financial sector — 13%
— Retail trade — 9%
— Business services — 8%
— Media, marketing, advertising, BTL, PR, design, producing — 7%
— Telecommunications, communications - 6%
- Construction, real estate, operation, design - 5%
- Educational institutions - 5%
The IT sector is one of the leaders in terms of salary levels in the Kazakh labor market. The arithmetic average salary offered for vacancies was 360 thousand tenge before taxes. An income level of 1 million tenge can be found in 12% of vacancies.
Salaries depend quite heavily on the skills and work experience of candidates. Beginning IT specialists almost always face a low starting salary. For example, employers are willing to pay a leading frontend developer up to $7,000, and a beginner from 90,000 tenge.
In terms of positions, a serious difference in salary offers is also noticeable. Top 5 highest paying positions in IT for 2023:
— Team Lead up to $15,000
— CV Engineer up to $10,000
— Senior DevOps Engineer 9000 — $9,500
— Lead AI Data Scientist up to $8,000
— Senior Frontend developer up to $7,000
The largest number of IT specialists live in Almaty (52%) and Astana (25%). The profession is predominantly dominated by men (69%). The average age was 26-35 years.
An analysis of the labor market shows that in 2023, programmers and developers most often entered the labor market (20% of the total). IT project managers came in second place with 12%. In third place are data analytics - 8%.
The resumes of specialists most often mention knowledge of the following skills: SQL, HTML, Python, Agile Project Management, OOP.
Many Kazakhstanis assess the prospects of the IT industry as one of the highest. Thus, according to the results of a survey in 2022, 19% of employed Kazakhstanis planned to undergo retraining to work in the field of information technology.
In 2023, on average there will be only three applicants per IT vacancy. This indicator is considered scarce for the market; normally it should be 5-7 applicants. The Kazakhstan labor market now urgently needs programmers, developers and web engineers with Middle and Senior qualifications.
The cities where this shortage is most severely felt are Almaty, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kostanay, Karaganda and Astana.