Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Private Sector Development and Access to Finance
143
Note: Data collected on forms specially designed by the author.
Sources: Author’s calculations based on data received from Uzbekistan Statistics on 3 October 2018.
Figure 4.5: Employment by Small Businesses, Uzbekistan,
2003, 2005, and 2017
2005
2017
a. By Sector 
(% of total)
2003
287
518
356
218
429
159
363
593
330
177
538
655
273
541
486
1,110
649
379
974
251
864
1,287
803
278
969
1,229
599
664
2017
b. By Area 
(’000 people)
34.4%
13.6%
11.5%
13.5%
11.6%
4.6%
5.4%
12.8%
12.7%
23.1%
22.5%
34.3%
Agriculture
Karakalpakstan
Andijan region
Bukhara region
Jizzak region
Kashkadarya region
Navoi region
Namangan region
Samarkand region
Surkhandarya region
Sirdaryo region
Tashkent region
Fergana region
Khorezm region
Tashkent city
2003
59
44
62
75
50
43
53
61
64
57
76
95
62
31
46
55
51
41
68
33
54
80
77
37
45
61
55
13
2017
c. Employment per Small Business by Area 
(average number of people)
Karakalpakstan
Andijan region
Bukhara region
Jizzak region
Kashkadarya region
Navoi region
Namangan region
Samarkand region
Surkhandarya region
Sirdaryo region
Tashkent region
Fergana region
Khorezm region
Tashkent city
Industry
Construction
Transport and communication
Trade and catering
Others

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Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth
144
The top two regions where small business workers live are Samarkand and 
Fergana, both accounting for 12% of the total small business labor force 
(Figure 4.5b). Tashkent city hosts the largest number of small businesses 
but absorbed only 6% of total small business workers in 2017, 4 percentage 
points less than in 2003. Figure 4.5c shows the average number of employees 
per small business by area. The number of employees per small business 
diminished in 9 of the 14 regions between 2003 and 2017, with the largest 
decline in Tashkent city (60% less in 2017 than in 2003), followed by Jizzak 
region (a 46% decrease), and Tashkent region (a 41% decrease). Small 
businesses based in Tashkent city employ 13 people on average, a size that is 
generally in the microenterprise category.
Uzbekistan does not have a large base of viable small and medium-sized 
enterprises (SMEs) to create jobs, especially in the capital city and its 
neighboring regions. More space for job creation could be made in highly 
productive services-related SMEs (not retail trade and catering services but 
capital-intensive technology-based services) by promoting labor mobility into 
such SMEs from less productive sectors. Agriculture-related SMEs could also 
create more jobs if they became more productive by using technology that 
could be obtained through participating in agricultural value chains.
The sectoral trend of small businesses’ output follows that of small business 
employment. Agriculture, industry, and construction combined contribute 
about 60% of small businesses’ GVA (Figure 4.6a). Services-related small 
businesses generate the remaining 40%. Agriculture-related small businesses 
generate the largest share of GVA among all small businesses, at 34%. 
Tashkent city is the largest contributor to small businesses’ GVA, accounting 
for 21% of their total GVA in Q3 2018, a 5.8 percentage point rise from 
2003. This is followed by Tashkent region at 10.4% and Samarkand at 9.8%
(Figure 4.6b). Figure 4.6c shows the labor productivity of small businesses 
by area, denoted by their GVA per worker. The labor productivity in Tashkent 
city is by far the highest, at SUM36.5 million ($4,492) per worker in 2017. 
By sector, although transport and communication services are small in scale, 
they have the highest labor productivity of small businesses, with an increasing 
trend, at SUM21.6 million ($2,659) per worker (Figure 4.6d). Next are industry 
(SUM16.2 million or $1,998), trade and catering (SUM13.7 million or $1,690), 
agriculture (SUM11.9 million or $1,466), and construction (SUM8.5 million or 
$1,047). Overall, Uzbekistan’s economy is led by labor-intensive agriculture, 
industry, and construction, supported by small businesses’ labor forces.

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