The profession of IT specialists is becoming increasingly in demand and well-paid. According to the Bureau of National Statistics, over the past few years, the number of people employed in the category "Computer Programming, Consulting and Related Services" in Kazakhstan has nearly tripled. In 2019, there were 5.8 thousand IT professionals in the country, and by July of this year, that number has risen to over 17 thousand, as reported by finprom.kz.
Like in any field, there is staff turnover in IT, but it is low and offset by the hiring of new specialists. For instance, from January to June 2024, approximately 3 thousand specialists left the sector, while 3.9 thousand were hired. The trend of growth in the labor market for such specialists is supported by colleges and universities. In the last two years alone, the number of university graduates in the field of "Information and Communication Technologies" has increased by 35%, from 8 thousand to 10.8 thousand.
The average salary of employees in the information and communication sector has increased by 1.5 times over the past few years. In 2019, it was 262.3 thousand tenge, and by June 2024, it reached 657.4 thousand tenge. Only the salaries of oil workers and specialists in finance and insurance are higher. However, it is essential to clarify that 657.4 thousand tenge is the average salary across the entire "Information and Communication" category, which includes not only programmers and application developers but also those involved in communications and information services. Typically, their salaries are lower than those of developers.
Let’s take a closer look at the salary data for the more specific category of computer programming, consulting, and other related services. In the current year, 14.1% of workers in the sector earned up to 250 thousand tenge, 40.8% earned between 400 thousand and 700 thousand tenge, and another 45.1% earned more than 700 thousand tenge. The total number of IT professionals earning over 1 million tenge for their work in the specialty was 2.1 thousand, and those earning over 1.5 million tenge numbered 2.5 thousand.
Attractive salaries contribute to a consistently high growth rate in the number of resumes from IT specialists in the job market. According to data from the private recruiting platform Hh.kz, in 2024, job seekers began leaving their resumes more frequently in the "Information Technology" category. At the beginning of the year, the growth rate was around 40–50% year-on-year, and from April to September, it was around 23%. Last year, such high growth rates in the number of applicants were not observed. It is important to note that the platform is used not only by those who are unemployed and seeking work but also by currently employed specialists who are monitoring the job market for better conditions.
In contrast, the situation with job vacancies was different. In 2023, there was a more frequent reduction in the number of new jobs compared to the current year. Starting from July 2024, more job vacancies began to appear in the labor market, with the most significant increase noted in October: up by 8%.
The increase in the number of employees and salary growth would not have occurred without the notable growth in the IT services market, which has been observed in the sector for two consecutive years. According to the BNS data, last year the volume of services provided in programming and consulting, as well as other related services, increased by 62.3%, from 671.4 billion to 1.1 trillion tenge. This marked a record high for the Kazakhstani IT industry. In the first half of this year, an upward trend can still be observed. For the first half of 2024, the volume of such services reached 611.3 billion tenge, which is 28.5% more than in the first six months of the previous year. The largest share—43.5%—of this total was accounted for by services related to software development and testing.