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Uzbekistan
Labor Force
The swelling of the working-age population has led to high rates
of unemployment and underemployment (see Population, this ch.).
At the same time, despite relatively high average levels of education
in the population, the shortage of skilled personnel in Uzbekistan
is also a major constraint to future development (see Education,
this ch.). Russians and other nonindigenous workers traditionally
were concentrated in the heavy industrial sectors, including mining
and heavy manufacturing. With the independence of Uzbekistan and
the outbreak of violence in several parts of Central Asia, many
of these skilled personnel left the country in the early 1990s.
In 1990 as many as 90 percent of personnel in Uzbekistan's electric
power stations were Russians. Because Russian emigration caused
a shortage of skilled technicians, by 1994 half of the power generating
units of the Syrdariya Hydroelectric Power Station had been shut
down, and the newly constructed Novoangrenskiy Thermoelectric
Power Station could not go on line because there was nobody to
operate it. In the mid-1990s, training programs were preparing
skilled indigenous cadres in these and other industrial sectors,
but the shortfall has had a strong impact.
Data as of March 1996
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