Abstract
Digital transformation has altered the structure of labour demand and the conditions under which young people enter employment. Yet its gains are not shared equally between young men and young women, and gender inequality continues to limit the realization of youth human capital. This study examines how digitalization and human capital jointly shape youth employment outcomes and the gender gap in youth unemployment in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and constructs a composite measure of youth labour market readiness for the digital economy. The study employs annual time-series data for Kazakhstan spanning twenty years, from 2005 to 2024, drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, modelled International Labour Organisation estimates and the Bureau of National Statistics, and applies comparative and economic-statistical analysis, Pearson correlation, ordinary least squares regression with Newey–West standard errors, min–max normalization with linear aggregation, and trend extrapolation to 2030. The results show that female unemployment among young people exceeded male unemployment in every year of the period, declining from 13.97 to 4.94 percent for young women and from 11.60 to 2.87 percent for young men; the gender gap narrowed from 2.37 to 0.35 percentage points by 2017 and then widened again to 2.07 points by 2024. Internet penetration enters the gender-gap equation with negative linear and positive quadratic coefficients, implying a U-shaped relationship with a turning point at 49.1 percent. The composite index rose from 0.109 to 0.84