The number of remote workers in Kazakhstan declined in the first quarter of 2026, according to new data from the Bureau of National Statistics (BNS), as most companies continued pushing employees back to the office.
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Of Kazakhstan’s 9.39 million employed residents, only 28,821 people continue to work remotely — just 0.3% of the country’s workforce. By comparison, in the first quarter of 2025, the number of remote workers stood at 45,901, or 0.5% of all employed people.
Mangystau leads in remote work
Contrary to expectations, Kazakhstan’s remote-work leader was not the IT sector in the country’s largest cities, but the Mangystau region, where 7,374 people work remotely.
Almaty ranked second with 4,185 remote workers, followed by the Turkestan region with 3,936 and Astana with 1,690.
The high concentration of remote workers in the oil- and gas-producing Mangystau region is largely linked to the restructuring of shift work and service companies. Businesses have outsourced some administrative and engineering positions, allowing employees to work outside traditional field operations.
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At the same time, official statistics recorded zero remote workers in three industrial regions: Atyrau, West Kazakhstan and Pavlodar.
Most remote employees use personal equipment
The BNS report also found that most businesses are unwilling to cover remote-work expenses.
Of the 28,821 remote employees nationwide, 24,794 (86%) use their own computers, phones and communication tools for work.
Only 4,027 workers receive employer-provided laptops, internet access or corporate communications services.
Notably, in the Mangystau region, Almaty and Astana, all remote employees reportedly use only their own equipment. The Turkestan region was the only major region where a significant number of workers — 1,442 employees — received company-funded remote-work infrastructure.
Return-to-office trend continues
Remote work in Kazakhstan peaked during 2020 and 2021, when pandemic-related quarantine restrictions forced companies to move between 20% and 30% of administrative staff to home offices.
Beginning in 2023, however, many global corporations started scaling back remote and hybrid work policies, citing lower productivity and communication challenges.
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By 2024, most major quasi-state and private companies in Kazakhstan had abandoned hybrid schedules — such as three office days and two remote days per week — and returned employees to the traditional 40-hour in-office workweek.
