47 resumes for one job opening: why Kazakhstan lacks IT companies, not IT specialists

Askar Aytov, city — Almaty, Head of DevRel and founder of the Telegram channel Devs.kz

The global technological landscape is undergoing massive transformation. In Europe, office and many classic IT positions are shrinking, with people being laid off. In America, a similar picture of workforce optimization is observed. However, on Western markets, these losses are rapidly compensated by the creation of entirely new companies and job openings. The reason is simple: cutting-edge AI systems are created in the United States and sold abroad, generating a colossal influx of capital and jobs.

Theoretically, Kazakhstan should have faced a purely European scenario: a reduction in jobs without an AI-driven boom to compensate. However, our situation turned out to be slightly more complex and tense.

For job seekers, competition in the Kazakhstani market has become truly anomalous. While the average hh.index across the RK labor market hovers around 15.7 — 15 resumes per one vacancy, in the IT sector it has breached the mark of 47. And this pressure will only grow, considering that new cohorts of graduates from IT universities and specialized schools will enter the market this year.

The IT sector of the RK has breached the hh.index mark of 47 resumes per one vacancy. According to official statistics, over the past couple of years, the net inflow of registered IT specialists arriving from abroad amounted to more than 1,400 people. By market sentiment, this figure is significantly higher. Along with them, more than 490 IT companies with foreign participation have entered our market, creating over 32,000 new jobs. This is an excellent indicator, but it does not solve all problems.

74% of our compatriots working in IT still work for local companies. On the market, it is said that salaries in some companies have increased — allegedly, foreign capital forces local SMEs and corporations to raise rates to retain people. But this is hard to believe. Analysis of open data from hh.kz and responses to job postings in our Telegram channel @Devs_kz shows a clear picture: too many candidates are competing for a limited pool of employers.

Who is building international IT superprojects in Kazakhstan

To avoid being left behind in technological progress and to avoid turning exclusively into consumers of foreign neural networks, Kazakhstan needs to more actively create international AI products. At the moment, the landscape of large local projects looks modest. Kaz LLM and OYLAN as products have not yet demonstrated active development. Among bright and successful cases, one can highlight Higgsfield, projects by TSARKA, and a few other commercial superprojects, but this is critically insufficient for the scale of the country.

We have a powerful foundation for creating serious AI products. The Kazakhstani IT sector is not about "garage startups," which are historically not characteristic of our infrastructural reality. The country operates at least eight large modern data centers capable of providing serious computing power.

Moreover, we stand on the threshold of building new infrastructure. Mega-projects such as Alatau City are developing. Instead of competing for a limited number of positions in the local segment, our developers need to direct their efforts toward creating world-class solutions.

The only reliable way out of the impending staffing storm is transitioning from serving exclusively local business to creating a greater number of international projects.