Job Opportunities for Young Graduates through Engagement in Crowdsourcing Platforms in Uzbekistan

In the last decade crowdworking has become a fast-developing source of employment and income for young people all over the world. With the growing portion of young generation in the total population Uzbekistan faces a challenging issue - to create job opportunities and ensure employment for the youth. Globalization, widespread Internet connectivity and digitalization have created vast opportunities for local companies to replicate international success of crowdsourcing/crowdworking platforms by providing access to digital jobs. On the one hand, by addressing questions to a young talent pool companies can solicit valuable ideas for the new product/service development or fetch innovative solutions to their persistent problems. On the other hand, in addition to earning income the young crowds have the chance to enhance their employability, get a shortcut access to reputable employers and build their careers. This is especially important for younger undergraduates who may have limited access to jobs in traditional economy markets due to their lack of degree and prior experience as well as those residing in rural areas where number of employers is extremely low and high unemployment rates are persistent. Multiple strands of global literature had focused on collaborative power of crowdsourcing platforms drastically changing the job market landscape and their impact on labor. As this phenomenon is relatively new and has not been widely applied in Uzbekistan, it is imperative to understand possible challenges that companies may face in leveraging this mechanism locally. This study thus aims to fill the literature gap by enhancing understating of the adoption barriers that crowdsourcing platforms could face in Uzbekistan in the framework of providing job opportunities. Identifying these hindrances and the underlying causes behind them can help companies properly design their crowdsourcing platforms and campaigns to ensure greater participation of potential contributors and job seekers. Drawing on a survey of students and alumni of the international universities in Uzbekistan that aimed to assess the impact of incentives and task design on crowdsourcing participation in this study the authors have specifically focused on participation barriers. The conducted survey findings reveal that lack of trust is the main factor in decreased participation intention. Recommendations for companies, as well as policy makers are presented in the concluding section.