Measures to overcome major problems of state regulation of the labour market in Kazakhstan
Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №8 - 2016
Authors: Bogorodskaya Oxana, Kazakh-American free university, Kazakhstan
Alipova Alima, Ust-Kamenogorsk branch of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Kazakhstan
A competent state policy is the key to the
formation of a sustainable and balanced labor market, flexible and effective
employment of the country's human resources, social protection and security. In
his article "Social Modernization of Kazakhstan: Twenty Steps to the
Society of Universal Labor", the President of Kazakhstan outlined the
issues to be considered to develop the sector of employment: developing a
technique to define a group of self-employed people adequate to the real
situation and prospects for employment and to improving the methodology for
determining the level of unemployment based on the new technique to determine
self-employed population [1, p. 1-6].
To do so, we need to solve the following
problems:
- create a unified system of monitoring the
labor market and human resources employment;
- update the legal framework determining
relations in the labor market and in the sector of employment.
Due to the different economic nature and
specific features of the labor market operation and employment assurance, the
effective achievement of this goal requires solving different problems in the
labor market and employment presented in Table 1.
At the same time the realization of the
main priorities and directions of the state policy in the labor market takes
place in stages, the initial stage of the labor market operation being directly
linked with the development of macro-economic processes [2, p. 1-5].
The main priorities of state policy in the
labor market are:
1) development of a balanced, dynamic labor
market;
2) reduction of the level and average
duration of unemployment;
3) promotion of a rational, flexible and
effective employment of human resources;
4) provision of social security in the
labor market, adequate to the conditions of the economic growth and basic needs
of people under protection.
These priorities are designed for the
long-term perspective and suggest a phased implementation, being a constant
reference point of public policy.
Table 1. Major
challenges of the state regulation in the labor market operation and employment
assurance
Thus, the state policy in the labor market
at the initial stage should be realized in the following directions:
- Development of a transparent legal
framework regulating the labor market and the employment sector;
- Development of a flexible professional
and territorial mobility of human resources, organized recruitment;
- Creation of a national information system
for monitoring the operation of the national labor market;
- Development and implementation of
national and regional (industrial) employment programs in accordance with the
Model of industrialization for 2010 – 2015, the Scheme of rational allocation
of production capacity till 2020, implementation of large-scale projects.
Consequently, the main directions of the
policy implementation are: securing the growth of employment and its balanced
maintenance in accordance with the demand for labor due to structural economic
reforms, development of the favorable environment stimulating advancement of
entrepreneurship, improvement of the quality of human resources.
At the next step the government must create
the conditions for productive and decent work, so that people had the right and
opportunity to realize and develop their professional and creative abilities.
In addition, the state should pursue an
active structural policy to support all industries aimed at innovative development
and to create an "information society". This policy must be
accompanied by:
- active employment of economically
inactive people;
- formation of the national human resource
management system;
- creation of a framework conditions for
entering into the international labor markets;
- integration into the global labor market
due to the development of competitive advantages of the country;
- extensive investment into human
resources, allowing to maintain and improve their skills throughout their
lives;
- creation of the conditions in the labor
market that reduce inefficiencies and under-utilization of human resources;
- carrying out labor market reforms based
on the principles of "flexicurity", empowering people in flexible
employment and social protection.
Over the last decade, the activation of the
market processes has led to the intensive development of the labor market, the
emergence of specific types of reproductive relations. Development of new forms
of economic activity, increased mobility of the population completely transformed
the situation in the labor market. All this has led to a sharp increase in social
mobility of workers and resulted in an overall imbalance in the labor market.
In this regard, there appeared a need to regulate these processes at the
national level by means of active and passive measures.
There are regularly developed employment
programs based on the strategic plans of the state development and taking into
account new development trends. These programs include measures to reduce
unemployment rate, support business development, creation of a flexible system
of training and retraining of the unemployed population, improving the organization
of public works, the creation of additional jobs through development of investment
programs. These employment programs are funded from the local budgets on a
tender basis, but the procedure of funding requires improvement in order to
encourage businesses and organizations offering their services in the labor
market with the assistance of employment [3, p. 810].
State regulation of the labor market is
aimed at the proper structural, regional and investment policies, and most importantly
at adapting workers to modern requirements of the labor market [4, p. 28].
Labour market regulation should be carried
out in the following areas:
- creation of state agencies that control
and regulate the level of employment and unemployment;
- development of a system aimed to
improve labor mobility;
- promotion of flexible forms of employment
that enable employers to influence the quantity and quality of labor force,
based on the state economy and industry needs;
- training of qualified, professionally
educated and easily adaptable to the new conditions young specialists;
- improving the efficiency of women's work;
- pre-retirement employment regulation;
- control of the inflow of foreign labor
force (toughening its import and use, its gradual complete termination);
- regulation of wages (setting increase and
reduction limits taking into account price and inflation rates);
- prevention and settlement of labor
disputes;
- promotion of work motivation;
- indirect subsidies for employers to
create additional jobs for the unemployed and the employment of disadvantaged
people;
- development of a social partnership
system.
A more effective enforcement of employment
will result from the development of priority sectors stimulating the country’s
economic growth (light and food industries, chemical, coal, oil and gas, oil
refining industry, mechanical engineering, agriculture).
To increase the level of employment it is
necessary to develop small and medium-sized business, therefore it is advisable
to attract foreign investments and technical assistance to support the development
of this sphere. At present, there are programs that have been developed to
support lending to small and medium-sized businesses, also, there are training
and advanced training programs for such enterprises [5, c.86-88].
Currently, it is possible to implement a
number of measures of social and economic policy that will ensure the reduction
of tension in the labor market. These measures include a protectionist policy
that defends domestic producers and consumers from foreign competitors, acting
by means of customs, monetary or credit policy, an active foreign policy that
promotes the export of Kazakhstani goods and the development of small, family
businesses, contributing to lower unemployment.
Besides the reviewed directions of the
unemployment containment policy it would be effective to implement the following
measures:
- development of a regulatory layoffs
system in those regions which are marked by a high tension in the labor market;
- development of employment programs for
freed-up workers;
- encouragement of the development of
flexible forms of employment;
- encouragement of unpromising categories
of employees for the withdrawal from the labor market;
- regulation of the potential labor force
(young people, teenagers, housewives) entering into the labor market aimed at
receiving vocational training;
- limitation of employment of non-citizens
of the Republic of Kazakhstan and stateless people;
- implementation of programs in reducing the
unemployment rate, developed on the basis of foreign target-specific loans;
- development of the entertainment
industry, creation of recreation areas, which will provide employment during
construction.
The increase in unemployment among young
people requires special attention and it is appropriate to borrow the
experience of foreign countries, such as the introduction of youth vocational
training programs, which takes place in England, according to which young
people receive necessary assistance for education in the form of scholarships
or free training (grants and loans).
The most acceptable direction in Kazakhstan's practice to promote the employment of young people is training young people
for professions contributing to the development of the economy. This requires
the development of an employment program for graduates of all types of
educational institutions, which implies improving legal, social and
organizational conditions for the employment of young people. The degree of
success of the country depends on the degree to which new specialists will be
able to find jobs in their specialty and apply gained knowledge and skills. Kazakhstan annually conducts nation-wide actions to address youth employment issues, one of which is
"New resources of Kazakhstan", and "Modern education"
public fund developed a new project - "The Republic of Kazakhstan Youth
Employment Support Program".
The state should take into account how many
specialists it needs to train to control this process: if there isn’t a sufficient
number of specialists in certain professions, it is necessary to organize retraining
programs. Foreign experience shows that this method of labor market regulation
is effective enough as it makes it possible to respond to structural changes in
the economy and contribute to the elimination of these changes.
Creation of a labor market data bank will
allow receiving timely information about vacancies, processes and changes
occurring in the labor market.
One of the factors of increase in the
efficiency of local employment services, which administer government programs
aimed at the integration of the unemployed and temporarily inactive population
in the official labor market is the improvement of methods of work with the
client and information management. The experience of developed countries shows
that it is necessary to work individually with every person, to develop for
him/her an individual path of communicating with the employment agency and
select the most effective program for each applicant.
It should be noted that the planned
measures to eliminate the problems of the state regulation of the labor market
require a concerned creative approach to their implementation on the part of
business leaders and local authorities.
The main activities of the state regulation
of the labor market for the med- term perspective to 2020 are as follows:
1) development of a system of professional
orientation beginning with the elementary stage of education;
2) development of a mechanism forecasting
needs of industries in qualified personnel;
3) informing the public with regard to
employment issues, the situation in the labor market, broad popularization of
popular specialties by raising their prestige through the media;
4) coordination of planning and creation of
permanent and temporary jobs;
5) reducing negative consequences of the
global crisis on the social and economic situation in Kazakhstan and provision of the necessary basis for the economic growth;
6) development of the entrepreneurial
activity;
7) improvement of the mechanism of
attraction of foreign labor force (to stimulate hiring of Kazakhstani
citizens);
8) increase in the productive employment of
self-employed population, formalization of their status;
9) strengthening of the targeted measures
of social support, reduction of dependency and stimulation of labor activity;
10) development of a clear strategy for
internal migration, based on long-term forecasting and planning, creation of incentives
for the resettlement of migrants, taking into account the priorities of spatial
and territorial development of the country, as well as economic and labor
expediency.
Here is the list of state policy events in
the labor market for the long-term perspective to 2050:
- creation of highly productive jobs in the
priority sectors;
- improvement of forecasting of staffing
needs in the economy;
- ensuring of the labor productivity
growth;
- increasing labor mobility;
- legalization of informal employment;
- attracting the best foreign experts in
order to compensate for the shortage of qualified personnel;
- inclusiveness of the labor market;
- modeling and adaptation of national labor
market with consideration of changing conditions, training of the universal
specialists, who easily change professions under condition of production modernization.
In conclusion, it should be noted that adoption and implementation
of the proposed measures of the state regulation of the labor market of the Republic of Kazakhstan will result in development of a highly dynamic balanced labor market,
providing a complete, rational, efficient, highly motivated employment of human
resources of Kazakhstan. This will improve the validity of both state programs,
and programs developed at the regional level. A New employment model will be
linked to the rational employment of human resources at the national level, reflecting
the state policy in the field of industrialization of the country and the tran sition
to an innovative path of development.
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Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №8 - 2016
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