The Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations announced plans to reduce the unemployment rate by 2021 from the current 9.4% to 6.5–7%.

Speaking at a forum dedicated to the cooperation of Uzbekistan and the UAE in the field of labor, First Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Erkin Mukhitdinov reported on this. 

According to the ministerial strategy, it is planned to achieve a reduction in the percentage of the unemployed by:

- state order for the creation of permanent jobs;

- state support for the development of entrepreneurial skills among the population;

- creating conditions for the export of labor resources abroad, especially to Turkey, South Korea, Japan and European countries.

In addition, it is planned to ensure the growth through retraining programs based on the needs of the labor market, issuance of patents for existing shadow types of professions, such as self-employed, taxi drivers and so on.

The ministry faces the challenge of creating and implementing a Single National Labor Information System. It will be integrated with the databases of other organizations to cover all employees, including employees of state organizations and private enterprises.

As part of the program to reduce the unemployment rate, employment centers will be created and social protection of the population will be improved.

The range of services they provide will be expanded, for example, the offer of vacancies in other regions of the country or abroad, training in entrepreneurial skills and others.

The ministry also plans to increase the share of employment in the official sector to 65% by 2021. Now it is 5.4 million people, or about 40% of the economically active population.

“We need to involve people in the formal sector of the economy so that they can pay taxes, have stable working conditions and receive decent wages. To do this, first of all, we must make the legislation more flexible, especially for remote workers, freelancers, self-employed. In addition, we are working on several methods of encouraging employment in the formal sector,” Erkin Mukhitdinov said.

The agency expects growth in remittances from labor migrants to $7.2 billion by 2021.

The following measures are planned to increase the share of organized labor migration:

- opening of the labor market for the private sector in order to develop the organized dispatch of labor migrants abroad;

- creation in each region of modern adaptation centers for migrant workers before being sent abroad;

- creation of foreign representative offices of the External Labor Migration Agency in Russia, the Republic of Korea and other countries;

- protection of the rights of workers abroad using the Fund’s resources to protect the rights and interests of citizens;

- introduction of a program for the reintegration of migrants, their involvement in business activities.