Journal of Political Risk, Vol. 13, No. 2, February 2025
By Adkhamjon Janobiddinov
October 23, 2023 – USAID Administrator Samantha Power conversed with students at a secondary school in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Ms. Power listened to the youth speak about what motivates and encourages them to be active participants in society and their country’s development. She announced an initial $4.5m towards improving quality of instruction. Photo by Isaac Blake/USAID.
Uzbekistan is a country with a huge youth population. According to latest reports, more than 60% of Uzbekistan’s population is composed of those below the age of 30. According to 2021 World Bank data on youth employment in Uzbekistan, the country’s population will remain young for the next 30 years. Although this can increase Uzbekistan’s economic potential, it may also bring employment challenges due to a higher demand for jobs. This article addresses the main challenges in youth employment in Uzbekistan and offers possible solutions.
According to the Youth Affairs Agency of Uzbekistan’s 2024 briefing on youth affairs, there are 342,000 unemployed youth across the country. The rest of the youth are employed in various sectors, including agriculture, textiles, construction, and services. It is also important to highlight that Uzbekistan has a huge informal sector, where 5.5 million people are employed. An additional 6.8 million people are engaged in the official sector. There is also a considerable number of youth working abroad. Although official data shows that the number of Uzbeks working abroad is 2 million, it is said that the actual number could be twice as high.
The government of Uzbekistan is implementing various projects to train youth and offer them pathways to pursue their careers. For example, free language learning courses are being offered. The government also signed a law to reimburse exam costs, such as IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, and many more, for youth who scored 70% or higher on these exams. The Migration Agency of Uzbekistan has signed agreements with several developed countries, including Germany and the UK, to offer job opportunities for Uzbeks in foreign countries. Furthermore, 152,742 young people received 56,000 hectares of fertile land to start their agricultural projects. However, there are still a considerable number of unemployed youth. In fact, the labor discouragement among youth reaching 5% demonstrates that there is a need for further improvement in youth employment policies. In other words, 5% of the young labor force stopped looking for jobs as they found no suitable employment options. Continue reading