however in kazakhstan it is closely associated with poverty and lower income levels world bank b while unemployment rates are relatively low and do not vary much across kazakhstan s monotowns selfemployment may be a more appropriate indicator for identifying monotowns with a depressed labour market a high level of selfemployment is highly correlated with lower average wages across kazakhstan s monotowns and urban areas as a whole the monotowns accounted for of kazakhstan s urban population at the beginning of but almost of the urban population in