Uzbekistan aims to cut both unemployment and poverty to 4.5% in 2026 under a broader strategy to strengthen the labor market and boost incomes, Employment Minister Botir Zohidov said at a session of the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis. The target comes as unemployment has fallen to 5.8%, reducing the number of people seeking work.
The government aims to create permanent employment for 1mn people in 2026, while also increasing incomes for 4mn citizens. A further 1mn low-income individuals are expected to be covered by income-boosting services, and 1mn informal workers are set to be brought into the formal economy over the year. According to Zohidov, the main challenge now lies in integrating new entrants into the labor market rather than addressing large-scale unemployment.
To meet these goals, several targeted employment programmes are planned. Under the “Employment agencies as partners of employers” initiative, cooperation with more than 30,000 employers is expected to generate jobs for 150,000 people.
The “Mehnatsevar ayol” programme aims to employ over 40,000 people with disabilities, while the expansion of the “Local brands network” into regional markets is projected to support entrepreneurship and provide jobs for 30,000 people.
In regional comparison, Uzbekistan’s unemployment rate remained below the EU average of 6% with 5.1% in 2025 and ranked third among CIS countries, behind Kazakhstan (4.6%) and Russia (2.2%), while Armenia recorded the highest rate at 14%.
Earlier President Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that Uzbekistan’s poverty rate fell from 8.9% at the start of 2025 to 5.8%, with nearly 1.5mn people lifted out of poverty and 1,435 neighborhoods declared poverty-free over the year. Official figures also show unemployment declined to 5.1% in the second quarter of 2025, down from 5.5% a year earlier.
