Foreign Policy Blogs

Unemployment rises sharply in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Jobs and wages are being cut at state companies in Kazakhstan. Until now, economic troubles had been more or less confined to the private sector, but now the public sector must cut costs drastically.

In the Osh region of Kyrgyzstan, official unemployment has nearly doubled, from 10,000 a year ago to 17,500 now. In addition, there have been no official invitations for work in Russia. Coupled with the political unrest, this is truly a dangerous situation.

 

Author

Elina Galperin

Elina Galperin was born in Minsk, Belarus and grew up in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 2004, she attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she majored in History and Russian Studies. After finishing her senior thesis on the politics of education among the Kazakhs in the late Imperial period, she graduated in February 2008. In September 2010, she received a Masters of Arts Degree in History, having passed qualifying exams on the Russian and Ottoman empires in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Fall 2011, she advanced to doctoral candidacy, having passed exams in four fields: Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Soviet Union, Mongol Empire, focusing on administrative practices and empire-building.

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