ABSTRACT
The successor states of the former USSR are far from stable democracies moving steadily toward market economies. This chapter assesses some important patterns revealed by recently released data from the Soviet censuses of 1979 and 1989 and the continuities made clear from a look back at the census of 1926. It examines evidence for Uzbekistan alone, but it points to patterns that were present throughout Central Asia. By 1989 Russians were still very underrepresented in agriculture and overrepresented in industry and many other sectors of the labour force. Though the population continued to be predominantly rural, most of the employed population in Central Asia worked outside agriculture. Detailed occupational data can be used to explore further the extent to which men and women are employed in different jobs. An indirect method of discerning ethnic differences in the division of labour between men and women is to compare male employment in Uzbekistan and Russia.
