Labour and emigration in Kyrgyzstan

Every year the labour market in Kyrgyzstan has to absorb large numbers of education graduates. The relevant age

group of 15–29 year-olds makes up 31% of the entire Kyrgyz population, a much greater proportion than in western

European societies. Large youth cohorts require a dynamic economy in order to find employment. At the same time, young people are a precious asset for a country, holding the key to future growth and prosperity.

The overall unemployment rate that emerged from the sample is high at 20%. Young men are more likely to be

unemployed than young women and job opportunities are particularly lacking in rural areas, where unpaid household work frequently takes the place of salaried employment. Education plays an important role in determining early labour market outcomes. Those with only basic education are most likely to be engaged in unpaid household work, and if they do enter the labour market, they predominantly work in the informal sector. This is also true for those with initial vocational education and training (VET) and for those with general secondary education: both these groups of graduates mainly work in unregistered jobs and without contracts.

The labour market is strongly segmented into a formal and an informal sector. For their first job graduates are more likely to enter the informal sector than the formal sector. Apart from occasional examples of high wages, the overall quality of employment in the informal sector is much lower than the formal sector. The working week is almost 10 hours longer and job instability is high, with almost two-thirds of informal sector workers losing or leaving their informal job over the course of the observation period. In contrast, about three-quarters of job holders in the formal sector experienced job stability over the entire observation period. With little movement between the formal and informal sectors, the composition of the Kyrgyz labour market appears to be largely fixed and generally does not allow for upward mobility from the informal to the formal sector.

Personal networks are of overwhelming importance in the search for work. In contrast, employment agencies and

job advertisements play only a negligible role in matching job seekers to vacancies. This is true irrespective of the

educational background of job seekers and the type of job sought. This highlights the weak institutional support for

moderating the transition from school to work in Kyrgyzstan.

A high proportion of young people enter the labour market without having completed education. The rate of dropouts is 14% across all education levels, with virtually no difference between men and women. Particularly high dropout levels can be observed in higher education, in initial VET and in basic general education. The high dropout rate in basic general education gives most cause for concern as dropping out of education at this level seriously decreases life course opportunities and is not easily compensated for later in life.

Source: ETF

In Kyrgyzstan entering the labour market is highly dependent on private resources, particularly in terms of exploiting social connections to find employment and having sufficient private financial resources to attend education. This situation causes inequalities and inefficiencies in the transition from school to work. In order to increase the geographical and vocational distance that talent, skills and qualifications can travel, labour market and job placement services should be improved, career guidance strengthened and the quality and labour market relevance of education developed and enhanced.

Within the VET system, efforts should focus on expanding work-based training, upgrading theoretical training components and updating teaching content. In the light of the highly fluctuating informal segment of the labour market, which absorbs most graduates of initial VET, there should also be more emphasis on delivering

essential entrepreneurial skills in order to strengthen the overall entrepreneurial dynamic among young people and

promote the growth potential of businesses.

The Kyrgyz private sector is largely dominated by unstable and precarious informal employment.

The general lack of employment opportunities in rural areas severely limits the options for school graduates. It leads many young Kyrgyz to work without a salary within the family, or to migrate – either abroad or to the comparatively dynamic labour markets of Bishkek and other urban centres, contributing to high unemployment and overburdened infrastructure in these areas. In order to improve local prospects for school graduates in rural areas, it is necessary to focus on rural development that expands agricultural productivity beyond the subsistence level. Rural vocational schools can play an important role here by providing skills training for entrepreneurial activity and self-employment. They can also offer courses in productive agricultural activities, and act as a focal point for local experimentation and knowledge dissemination in developing sustainable and cost-effective agricultural activities.