Uzbekistan's labor market in international assessments:
About positions in international ratings and indexes

International rankings and indexes assess the economic and political
freedom, well-being of life, human rights, education, health care system, etc. of
various countries. In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic
of Uzbekistan dated 02.06.2020, key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined
for priority international ratings and indices for the Republic of Uzbekistan, a
number of which, as well as 16 sub-indicators, are directly related to the labor
market. This article highlights sub-indicators related to the labor market that affect
the position in international indices, as well as measures that need to be
implemented in the labor market to improve the position of Uzbekistan in
international comparisons.
Global Innovation Index
The Global Innovation Index (GII), evaluated by the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) since 2007, covers the economies of 132 countries,
which account for 94.3% of the world's population. In this index, Uzbekistan
ranked 93rd in 2020, 86th in 2021, and 82nd in 2022. The index consists of 7
directions and 81 sub-indicators. Each country is rated on a 100-point scale. In this
index, 3 sub-indicators of the "Business Development" direction and 1 sub-
indicator of the "Institutional system" direction relate to the labor market, which
are evaluated as follows.
Employment in knowledge-intensive industries.
According to the methodology of the International Labor Organization, this
sub-indicator is formed by calculating the share of the number of people employed
in knowledge-intensive industries, which belong to three categories of professions:
managers, specialists, technical and auxiliary specialists, as part of the
economically active population. Therefore, the GII sub-indicator lacks data on
employment in knowledge-intensive industries in Uzbekistan. This is due to the
fact that the report was not conducted according to the ISCO-08 and ISCO-88
standards, which take into account the distribution of employment by position. In
order to determine the indicators of this sub-indicator, it is necessary to determine
the number of employees in knowledge-intensive industries based on the
interdepartmental software and hardware complex "Unified National Labor
System", as well as make changes to the questionnaire for determining the balance
of labor resources based on the recommendation of the International Labor
Organization. As an experiment, it is advisable to conduct an appropriate survey to

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coordinate the quality of the collected data with the International Labor
Organization.
Firms that offer formal training.
This sub-indicator is measured by determining the percentage of firms
offering formal training and retraining courses for their permanent employees out
of the total number of firms in the country. Based on the World Bank
methodology, more than a thousand companies are selected in each country and
surveys are conducted. The questionnaire consists of 13 components and includes
67 sub-indicators.
The 2022 report indicates that firms offering formal training in Uzbekistan
account for 16.9% of the total number of firms, and the country ranks 88th in this
sub-indicator. These figures are based on the results of a survey conducted by the
World Bank in 2019 among 1,239 firms operating in various sectors of the Uzbek
economy. Firms that participated in the survey were divided into 3 groups,
depending on the number of employees. According to the survey results, 13% or
78 out of 603 small firms, 23.6% or 97 out of 415 medium-sized firms, 42.1% or
93 out of 221 large firms organized training, retraining courses, trainings and
seminars for their employees.
Firms offering formal training in Uzbekistanin 2019
from THEM:
Subindicator Share of the total
number of firms
Small firms
(5-19employees) Medium-sized
companies
(20-99 employees)
Large companies
(100 + employees)
Europe and
CentralAsia
In lower-middle-
income countries
Percentage of firms offering formal training 16,9 % 13% 23,6% 42,1% 32,7% 37,3%
Source: World Bank (enterprise survey)
https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/en/data/exploreeconomies/2019/uzbekistan
Based on this, it can be concluded that the organization of training,
retraining courses, trainings and seminars for employees of small and medium-
sized enterprises in Uzbekistan is not sufficiently satisfactory. To improve
country's position on this indicator, it is possible to introduce a system of allocating
subsidies to employers from the state budget in order to encourage small and
medium-sized firms to train employees.
Working women with higher education.
This indicator is determined by calculating the proportion of women with
higher education in the total employed population. In the GII 2022, working
women with higher education account for 13.7% of the total number of employees,
and Uzbekistan ranks 56th in this sub-indicator. The reason for the relatively low
rate in country can be explained by the fact that the number of women with higher
education among the population is small, and many of them, married according to
traditional customs, mostly do not work and are engaged in household work.