Uzbekistan’s job market sees surge in vacancies but steep fall in salary offers

Number of job offers increased

Between July and September, employers posted more than 33,000 active job vacancies on hh.uz – a 24% increase compared to the same period last year, Spot reported.

Most job postings were concentrated in Tashkent, although the number of new vacancies in the capital itself fell sharply – by as much as 81.9%.

Meanwhile, the number of vacancies increased more than 1.5 times in Jizzakh, by 49% in Namangan, and by more than 40% in Andijan, Fergana, Bukhara, and Samarkand. Still, only 4.8% of all vacancies were located in Samarkand, while the share of other cities did not exceed 1.6%.

Average salaries dropped noticeably

In the third quarter of 2025, the average salary offered through HeadHunter was 4.36 million UZS – down 20.2% compared to last year. Tashkent continued to offer the highest average salary at 5.083 million UZS, but even there wages fell by 41%.

In Navoi, average salaries fell by more than half; in Karshi – by 92.3%; and in Chirchik – by 21.6%. The strongest growth in salaries was recorded in Andijan (+25%) as well as in Samarkand and Fergana (+2.7%).

The decline was attributed to structural changes in job offers, an increase in low-paid vacancies, and seasonal factors.

Top-paying sectors

As before, top and mid-level management roles offered the highest salaries – an average of 8.94 million UZS, down 13.7% year-on-year. Lawyers ranked second with 6.5 million UZS (down 21%).

Other high-paying fields included the automotive business (6.48 million UZS), agriculture (6.16 million UZS), and investment and consulting (5.44 million UZS). Among these, only agriculture showed no decline in salaries.

The lowest average salary was in the security sector – 1.59 million UZS, half the level of the previous year. Wages in insurance fell to 2.36 million UZS (–62%), domestic services to 2.4 million UZS (–32.3%), and catering to 2.65 million UZS. In IT, the average offered salary stood at 4.35 million UZS.

Administrative jobs saw the sharpest drop – down 72.6% to 3.13 million UZS. In construction, salaries fell 62.5% to 4.099 million UZS, and in finance and accounting – 47.7% to 5.02 million UZS.

According to the Statistics Agency, the average nominal salary in the first half of 2025 was 5.98 million UZS, 17.2% higher than in the same period of 2024. In Tashkent, the average salary exceeded 10 million UZS, with finance and IT leading by pay level.

How vacancies changed

Of all vacancies posted on HeadHunter, 15% were in sales and customer service, 11% in marketing and advertising, and 7.8% in fitness, sports, and beauty. Another 6.7% were in the automotive business.

The lowest number of offers came from insurance (0.1%), security, and law (0.6%). Employers were also least likely to look for procurement specialists (0.7%), agricultural workers (0.8%), and raw material extractors (0.9%). However, the number of vacancies in the insurance sector rose 2.5 times.

Demand for HR professionals, accountants, and financial experts increased by 54.9%, while the extraction (+52.2%) and retail trade (+41%) sectors also saw strong growth in job postings.