Number of the working-age population makes up 18.95 million people in Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- One of the priorities in Uzbekistan is the creation of new sustainable jobs, ensuring employment of the population, especially women and youth, wide involvement of citizens in entrepreneurial activities, increasing competitiveness and professional level of the national workforce.

Currently, the number of the working-age population makes up 18.954 million people (an increase of 1.0%), the number of employees is 13.376 million people (an increase of 1.3%).

The number of people employed in the official sector of the economy was 5.4 million (an increase of 3.4%), the share of official employment in total employment was 40.5%. Employed in the informal sector of the economy reached 7.96 million (59.5%), including those working abroad – 2.36 million people.

The unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2019 was 9.4% (for the same period last year - 9.7%), among young people (under 30), 15.3%, female unemployment was 13.0%.

In the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Andijan, Kashkadarya, Samarkand, Syrdarya and Ferghana regions, the highest unemployment rate was recorded, amounting to 9.7%. The number of people in need of employment reached 1.39 million people.

Since this year, the work of local labor agencies has been radically revised. As a result, the number of persons who applied to the labor authorities for five months of the current year increased by 1.2 times, from 271,000 to 329,100, the number of employed - by 1.3 times from 96,700 to 130,100, the number of trained - 2.5 times to 15.3 thousand, the number of unemployment benefits increased 7 times - from 3,400 to 23,800

About 110,000 people were directed to paid public work, in particular to the work performed under the programs “Obod Qishloq” and “Obod Mahalla”.

Within the framework of the programs “Every family is an entrepreneur”, “The youth is our Future", more than 180,900 people were employed.

In 2019, it is planned to create 370,000 jobs and provide employment for 182,000 people in seasonal and temporary jobs. In January-May of the current year, 96,700 jobs were created.

In accordance with the approved roadmap, of the 575,000 hidden jobs for the period, 309,423 jobs were legalized.

In accordance with the program for the implementation of the strategy of action in the five priority areas of development of the Republic of Uzbekistan (January 17, 2019 No. UP-5635), one of the main activities of the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan is training retraining of the unemployed population.

About 735 people were officially employed abroad by the Agency for External Labor Migration, including 642 in the Republic of Korea, 74 in the Russian Federation and 19 people in the Republic of Bulgaria.

To date, there are 82 legal entities registered in the register of private employment agencies, 61 of which have received licenses for employment of citizens of the Republic of Uzbekistan abroad.

During the first five months of the current year, 82,600 private employment agencies addressed 21,600 people, including 1017 of whom 962 were employed abroad, 55 in Uzbekistan. A large number of applicants accounted for Fergana (6.8 thousand), Andijan (2.5 thousand), Namangan (2.4 thousand), Bukhara (1.6 thousand), Kashkadarya (1.5 thousand) and Samarkand (2.6 thousand) regions.

The largest share of employment is in Andijan (359), Bukhara (133) and Ferghana (197) regions. Two people were employed in the United Arab Emirates, 40 - Lithuania, 398 - the Russian Federation and 509 - in the Republic of Turkey.

It is worth noting that for the first time from the state budget was allocated 1 trillion soums to the ministry, public fund of support of citizens, Fund of the help to citizens abroad, for improvement of the provided quality of services.

In addition, the World Bank will allocate US$50 million for the program to strengthen the capacity and strengthen the material and technical capacity of labor administrations, the Asian Development Bank will allocate US$100 million for the reconstruction of vocational training centers of the Ministry, the introduction of new training equipment, the introduction of modern professional standards.