With an active population of 8.6 million in Kazakhstan, 53 percent are employed by businesses, 31 percent are self-employed and 5.8 percent are unemployed. The average monthly salary in the country in 2010 was KZT 84,115 which equates to $574.
Shortly after the Kazakhstan Democracy formed, the Bolashak Scholarship was established for all Kazak personnel training abroad. Sponsors of this scholarship include: Harvard University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, University of Chicago, London Imperial University, Columbia University, California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Since that time, 7,356 individuals have been scholars within the program under a variety of specialties including: Information Technology, Industrial Engineering, Agricultural Equipment and Technology, Information Security of Telecommunication Systems and much more.
More recently, in June 2010, an education project from Nazarbayev University started, which provided over 500 grants to study at the university. These grants were given by some of the top universities in the world. Additionally, there are a number of international programs available to assist with the financing of studying in Kazakhstan.
The banking system has employed many new graduates. The system is two-tiered with the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan being the central bank and the upper tier of the system. All other banks fall in the second tier of the banking system.
With a strong educational base developed in a short period of time, Kazakhstan has been able to output an excellent workforce that continues to contribute to their primary industries such as banking, agriculture, natural resource extraction and processing and heavy machinery manufacturing.