Kazakhstan’s senators push for official recognition of digital marketing jobs

Members of Kazakhstan’s Senate, the upper house of parliament, are urging the government to officially recognize digital professions such as social media marketing (SMM) specialists, targeting experts (also known as targetologists), content creators and other tech-related roles. The move aims to reduce the shadow economy, extend social protections to workers and enable universities to offer formal training programs.

The request was addressed to Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov and voiced by Senator Aigul Kapbarova.

Kapbarova criticized the country’s official job classification system for excluding many in-demand modern professions. She said that roles such as SMM managers, targetologists, content creators, developer operations (DevOps) engineers and quality assurance (QA) automation specialists are vital to sectors like the digital economy, agriculture, logistics and advertising. Despite the importance of their work, many of these professionals lack labor rights and access to social benefits.

The MP also noted that most digital professionals operate as individual entrepreneurs. Although many earn high incomes, they often pay minimal taxes, contributing to the informal economy.

Kapbarova outlined several benefits of formally recognizing these professions:

• Access to pensions, health care and maternity leave benefits.
• Increased tax revenue and reduced shadow employment.
• Alignment of educational programs with labor market demands.

Currently, without official recognition, universities and colleges are unable to offer degree programs, develop professional standards or allocate state-funded scholarships for these majors.

Kapbarova pointed out that in the European Union, the U.S., Singapore and other developed countries, most digital professions are not only officially recognized but also integrated into national education systems and labor statistics.