A growing number of Kazakhstan’s citizens are working in their chosen professions, yet satisfaction with their jobs remains uneven across demographics and regions, according to a recent study by Finprom.kz based on survey data from the National Statistics Bureau (NSB).

In a nationwide NSB survey conducted in March among nearly 12,000 respondents aged 15 and older, 50.7 percent reported being completely satisfied with their jobs, up slightly from 49.9 percent a year earlier. Another 29.9 percent said they were partially satisfied. The share of those dissatisfied with their jobs declined sharply from 3 percent to just 0.9 percent.

However, 18.5 percent of respondents either found the question difficult to answer or considered it inappropriate, a sharp increase from 1.6 percent the previous year.

Rural residents reported higher job satisfaction than their urban counterparts, with 53.9 percent compared to 49.4 percent. Dissatisfaction was also more common in cities (1.2 percent) than in rural areas (0.7 percent).

Gender differences also appeared. Men were more likely to report being satisfied with their work (55 percent) than women (48.1 percent). Women were slightly more likely to say they were only partially satisfied or entirely dissatisfied (1 percent versus 0.6 percent among men).

Satisfaction levels varied significantly by age. Among respondents under 17, only 30.2 percent were fully satisfied with their profession. Satisfaction peaked in the 29–38 age group at 62.5 percent but fell to 29.5 percent among those over 60.

As expected, financial status played a major role. Among high-income individuals, 82.6 percent were content with their professional choice, compared to just 14.8 percent among low-income respondents.

In the second quarter of 2025, Kazakhstan had 9.3 million employed people, an increase of 1.2 percent year over year. Of these, 7.1 million worked in their field of study, 1.7 million in unrelated professions, and 531,700 had not received formal professional training.

Urban residents were more likely to work in their trained field, with 4.9 million people, or 83.3 percent of the urban workforce, compared to 2.2 million rural workers (63.7 percent). In rural areas, 24.8 percent worked outside their area of study and 11.5 percent lacked professional training.

By gender, 3.6 million men and 3.5 million women reported working in their field. A higher percentage of women (77.6 percent) than men (74.8 percent) were employed in jobs matching their qualifications.

The leading employment sector remained trade and auto repair, employing 1.6 million people, a 3.3 percent increase over the past year. It was followed by education (1.2 million, +2.5 percent), agriculture (1 million, –5.2 percent), transport and warehousing (676,900, +1 percent), and construction (638,300, –1 percent).

The least represented sectors were water supply, real estate, and energy supply.