Kazakh IT entry-level collapse leaves 17 applicants per job as AI agents absorb routine tasks

September 14, 2026 at 04:07 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Kazakhstan's IT job market shows 17 applicants per vacancy on the Electronic Labor Exchange as of August 4, with 9,700 resumes against 580 openings. Kazakhtelecom CEO Bagdat Mussin said at the NEF forum that 5,000 of 8,000 employees will be optimized within 2-3 years, while Samruk-Kazyna cuts 729 administrative positions. The collapse of entry-level roles coincides with a shortage of middle and senior AI/ML, cybersecurity, and DevOps specialists.

Key Facts

The Electronic Labor Exchange listed 9,700 resumes and 580 vacancies in IT and telecommunications on August 4, a ratio of nearly 17 applicants per job.
Kazakhtelecom CEO Bagdat Mussin said at the NEF forum that 5,000 of 8,000 employees will be optimized within 2-3 years.
Samruk-Kazyna is cutting 729 staff units, or 11% of administrative and managerial personnel.
Mussin stated that robots will replace more than half of the 230 call-center operators, and AI agents are being built for lawyers, HR, and accountants.
The market reports an acute shortage of middle and senior specialists in AI/ML, cybersecurity, and DevOps, while junior specialists are already sufficient.

Entry-Level Collapse

The lower rung of Kazakhstan's IT profession has collapsed, not the profession itself. Tasks that gave yesterday's graduates their first 18 months of experience — simple code, first-line support, standard layout, document processing — have been taken over by AI agents that are cheaper than interns, never tire, and do not leave after a year. The entire training industry, from universities to three-month courses, continues to sell the same promise: 'learn to be a junior and enter IT.' This is no longer a market error but a promise that has lost its physical basis, and selling it further is trading air.

Who Is Hit Hardest

The first to be crushed is yesterday's university graduate without projects, whose only competitive advantage was cheapness and willingness to do routine work — both now occupied by a machine that costs less and asks for no mentor. The second is the graduate of three-month courses with a standard portfolio, which five years ago opened doors but today employers know can be generated in an evening and proves nothing. The third, and most painful, is the 45-year-old specialist from the administrative block — lawyer, HR, accountant — whom Kazakhtelecom's head directly mentions. This person has experience but no institution in the country that will retrain him in six months for a role where he remains needed, and he, not the student, will become the face of structural unemployment warned about by Samruk-Kazyna Public Council Chairman Bolat Zhamishev.