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South Korea gives Kazakhstanis the possibility of official employment
As Qazinform News Agency reports, a meeting took place between Almaty region governor Marat Sultangaziyev and a Korean delegation about gaining access to legal employment opportunities in South Korea through the country’s Employment Permit System (EPS).
Kazakh Labor and Social Protection Vice Minister Viktoria Shegay and representatives of local executive bodies were also at the meeting.
According to Governor Sultangaziyev, the point at issue is not just about working abroad, but also about creating a clear and protected migration mechanism.
Kazakhstanis will get the possibility to work legally abroad and receive valuable international experience and new professional skills. Building a transparent and secure labor migration system is another goal for Kazakhstan.
The Korean delegation made a short presentation of EPS. They designed it to operate in sectors with labor shortages and to legally attract foreign workers
The director of the mobile employment center of Almaty region Abylai Zuaida said that the sides signed a memorandum at the first stage of the talks, and they are currently at the second stage. It means that the Korean delegation is visiting colleges and training centers to evaluate workforce preparation and to assess Kazakhstan’s readiness to send workers.
The countries will sign a full memorandum as soon as all the requirements are met and negotiations succeed.
Moreover, specialized training centers will appear across the country to prepare workers for employment in South Korea if Kazakhstan joins the EPS.
However, an inter-ministerial commission will make the final decision once all preparatory stages are complete.
As estimated, 109,000 foreign seasonal workers expect to go to South Korea this year.
Further steps towards Kazakhstan’s inclusion in South Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS) were discussed last August by Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Population Askarbek Yertayev and South Korean ambassador Cho Tae-ick.
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Read moreSeasonal work program is the subject of talks between Uzbekistan and U.S.
As President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced at a recent foreign policy meeting, Uzbekistan will seek talks with the United States on allowing its citizens to work as seasonal laborers.
Also, the president’s press secretary noted that the U.S. government had simplified procedures last year for obtaining special visas for agricultural workers. As a result, Uzbekistan’s ambassador has initiated talks in Washington aimed at securing Uzbekistan’s inclusion on the U.S. list of countries whose citizens can be recruited for seasonal employment.
The aim of the initiative is to grant Uzbek citizens working abroad access to legal, well-paid jobs. So, regional governors got the requirement from the president to build direct ties with developed countries and regions that actively recruit foreign labor.
Ambassadors had also to identify high-income employment opportunities overseas. Citizens preparing for these roles should get vocational training and language instruction. The importance of signing bilateral labor migration agreements with countries including Japan, Sweden, Norway, Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, and Oman was also mentioned.
Once again, the number of Uzbek citizens residing abroad illegally was the subject of the president’s concern. Last year, more than 150,000 Uzbek nationals benefited from migration amnesty in Russia. The president instructed officials to intensify negotiations with other countries to help citizens secure legal employment. From their side, migrants have to comply with local laws.
In general, consular staff has a key responsibility for supporting Uzbek labor migrants in countries with rising migration flows, particularly in Europe. According to Mirziyoyev, simpler registration procedures and fewer bureaucratic hurdles will help them do it.
As The Times of Central Asia previously reported, the U.S. State Department plans to suspend the issuance of immigrant visas for citizens of Uzbekistan and 74 other countries starting January 21. It will add urgency to Tashkent’s pursuit of alternative legal migration pathways.
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Read moreBenefits for Ukrainians in Germany are planned to be canceled
As Minister of Labor of Germany Barbel Bas stated, basic social security allowance for refugees from Ukraine will be cancelled. Bas made this statement in connection with a draft law on the abolition of the basic social allowance of the Bürgergeld for refugees from Ukraine who arrived in Germany after April 1, 2025 and the payment of a smaller allowance for asylum seekers, considered in the Bundestag. The German government previously approved the relevant bill.
Also, the Minister states that the abolition of basic social benefits for newly arrived Ukrainian refugees in Germany will change their legal status.
According to the data, more than 1.2 million Ukrainian citizens have entered Germany. Nevertheless, the Federal employment Agency reports that only about 360 thousand of them are employed for November. Moreover, the German Ministry of Social Security spent about 6.4 billion euros on basic social security for Ukrainian refugees in 2024.
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Read moreReal Changes in Kazakh Labor Market that AI causes
As Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek predicted at a government meeting on Jan. 6, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will raise productivity for approximately 70% of Kazakhstan’s workforce and transform up to 53% of job functions. According to experts, AI will mainly redistribute the tasks rather than cause mass job losses and urgent challenges for labor policy and education systems.
Also, Nurbek presented a phased action plan is being developed to modernize higher education. On the first stage, in 2025, Quacquarelli Symonds assessed the role of education in building an AI-based economy.
As the International Labor Organization reports, high levels of generative AI already influences approximately 25% of jobs worldwide. Its share is nearly 35% in advanced economies, and is approaches to 10% in countries with lower digital maturity. Nevertheless, the tendency for changing daily work functions with keeping the same job titles prevails everywhere.
According to labor law expert Gulzira Atabayeva, these changes occur gradually and unevenly.
Also, she mentioned administrative and office roles among the most exposed to automatization.
As international research showed, women more often work on these positions.
EY shows that nearly 60% of global employment is already under moderate or high influence from generative AI. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), up to 28% of professions in OECD countries are at high risk of automation.
In response to this challenge, Kazakhstan the Kazakh government adopted an AI law at the end of 2025. It establishes artificial intelligence as a regulated sector under national legislation. The law will take effect in January 2026 and introduce principles of responsibility and transparency, labeling of AI-generated content and banning manipulative AI systems.
The Ministry of AI and Digital Development has also appeared. It approved the 2024-2029 AI Development Concept. Building an ecosystem that combines infrastructure, data access and human capital is the main focus of the strategy. The national Alem.AI platform, designed to provide developers with access to data and tools, and the AI Qyzmet program, which trains civil servants to work with AI-based solutions, are its key initiatives.
As Kazakhstan’s Center for Labor Resources Development assesses, it is possible to automate 29% of the country’s work functions. Approximately 13% have a direct link with AI applications. It means that employment structure may change for up to 2.2 million people, or nearly a quarter of the workforce, in their in the medium term.
As Nurbek stated, all educational programs starting in 2025 introduced AI -related skills: AI-related courses, AI-focused degree programs and AI upskilling courses.
Also, the Tomorrow School project is being implemented in cooperation with Astana Hub at universities nationwide. There are plans to establish a specialized AI university focused on interdisciplinary training and applied research. It should be integrated into the Alem.AI ecosystem and developed in partnership with foreign universities and technology companies.
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Read morePMCG reports that 12.4% of persons receive a monthly salary up to 600 GEL
996,988 persons were receiving Linka monthly salary in November 2025. It is 0.8% lower than in October 2025 and 1.0% less than in November 2024.
In November 2025, the share of persons receiving a monthly salary up to 600 GEL amounted to 12.4%, which was 0.2 percentage points higher than in October 2025 and 4.0 percentage points less than in November 2024.
In November 2025, 33.2% of persons were receiving a monthly salary of 2,400 GEL or more. It was 1.1 percentage points lower than in October 2025 and 4.5 percentage points more than in November 2024.
2.9% of persons were receiving a monthly salary of 9,600 GEL or more in November 2025. The decrease was 0.3 percentage points compared to October 2025 and 0.5 percentage points compared to November 2024.
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Read moreStudy finds that AI Could increases Kazakh workforce’s productivity
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the international analytical agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) have carried out a joint study. It showed that AI significantly enhances workforce productivity in Kazakhstan without mass job losses. It means that AI does not threaten employment but augments human labor and improves its efficiency, as
Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek emphasized.
As a result, a phased action plan to modernize Kazakhstan’s higher education system is being developed by the ministry. They will integrate AI-related skills into all educational programs starting in 2025. Nowadays, 95 universities all over the country already have AI disciplines in their curricula.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has already given a directive to establish an Artificial Intelligence University. Specialists in interdisciplinary fields aligned with industry demand will study in the new institution and conduct applied research there. The new University will be included into the Alem.ai ecosystem. It will also collaborate with leading global universities and tech companies.
So, a national goal that Tokayev declared is the transformation of Kazakhstan into a digital nation within three years. The President designated 2026 as the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence Development in his New Year’s address.
As Tokayev said, Kazakhstan has a strong foundation, built on progress in digital public services, fintech, and several key economic sectors. The country has already launched two national supercomputers, Alem.Cloud and Al-Farabium. Also, Kazakhstan’s IT service exports attained nearly $1 billion in 2025.
Tokayev stated that the advent of artificial intelligence has divided countries into those that live in the future and those that are left behind. So, Kazakhstan should develop digital technologies and artificial intelligence to be in the first group.
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Read moreGeorgia is going to focus on economic growth and jobs in 2026
According to Georgian Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili, economic growth, job creation, and major infrastructure projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Anaklia deep-water port, and the energy sector will become Georgia’s priorities in 2026.
As the minister emphasized, the government will focus on reducing poverty and improving citizens’ welfare alongside high economic growth.
The Caspian Post reports that completing the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, advancing the Anaklia port construction, and boosting the energy sector will become key projects next year. The goal of all these projects is strengthening the country’s economic and social development.
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Read moreChinese Citizens compose more than a third of migrant workers in Kazakhstan
Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports that more than 35% of all foreign nationals officially working in Kazakhstan are Chinese citizens.
Local executive authorities issued permits to 14,103 foreign citizens in total, as of December 1, 2025.
Particularly, Chinese nationals comprise the largest group of labor migrants (5,604 individuals) and represent over 35% of the total. Then follow citizens of Uzbekistan (2,110 people, about 15%), Turkey (1,036 people, over 7%), and India (943 people, more than 6%). Roughly 35% of the foreign labor force is made up of migrants from other countries.
Totally, they issued 537 permits for foreign labor to managers and their deputies (first category) and 2,244 to heads of structural divisions (second category) in 2025. The third and fourth categories embrace most foreign workers. There are also specialists (3,784 people) and skilled workers (1,271 people). Seasonal work got 2,299 permits were, and corporate transfers accounted for 3,970.
According to the ministry, 1,817 employers in Kazakhstan currently utilize foreign labor. Nevertheless, more than 334,000 Kazakhstani citizens make up about 96% of their total workforce.
Just over 35% of foreign workers (4,993 people) are employed in construction. 2,316 workers, or 16.5%, work in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. 1,235 workers, about 9%, are employed in mining and quarrying, and 1,155 workers, approximately 8%, work in manufacturing.
Also, an annual quota for the employment of foreign workers is set by Kazakhstan for the sake of the domestic labor market. It equaled to 0.2% of the workforce, or 14,800 permits in 2025. Then, regional authorities requested to raise this figure to 16,500 in March.
Later, they increased the quota further to 0.25% or 19,400 permits in August. The reason was that the list of professions eligible for seasonal foreign workers has expanded. After that, they revised the quota down to 16,700 permits, due to updated regional needs.
According to the Times of Central Asia, more than 80,000 Russian citizens got residence permits to work in Kazakhstan between January 2023 and September 2024.
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Read moreMinister Balayeva said that 3.3 million people work in skilled trades in Kazakhstan
Qazinform News Agency covered a closing ceremony, where Deputy Prime Minister and Culture and Information Minister of Kazakhstan Aida Balayeva presented the results of Kazakhstan’s Year of Working Professions.
According to her, Year of Working Professions is a strategic direction with long-term goals, but not a one-time effort. The Minister said that 3.3 million people in Kazakhstan work in skilled trades (about 2,000 technical specialties). Also, training systems have been established at colleges and universities to prepare qualified personnel for the real economy, business, digital platforms, and the social sector.
Balayeva mentioned that the President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had called for raising the status of honest, creative labor and fostering teamwork in his Address to the Nation.
Farmers (up to 57,000), welders (about 25,000), locksmiths and automotive specialists (16,000) are among the most in-demand professions. Another important data was youth employment. The Minister reported that around 1.2 million young people in Kazakhstan currently work in skilled trades.
Also, more than 113,000 schoolchildren and students attended open-door events held by about 4,000 enterprises nationwide as part of the Year of Working Professions. As Aida Balayeva noted, young people are actively mastering trades offering real career opportunities.
The Minister promised to continue to support working professions. To do that, she is intended to raise their prestige and develop mentorship programs remaining on the state policy agenda.
The main aims of the Year of Working Professions were the support of workers, enhancing their social status, and reformation of vocational education.
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Read moreVučić explained layoffs in the south by a “significant increase in wages”
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, explains the closure of several foreign companies’ plants in the south of Serbia in the last few months by “significant increase in wages”.
At first, 1.250 workers stayed unemployed due to the closure of Benetton and Johnson Electric factories. Then 250 workers lost work when Centaur left Vranje. Moreover, Trendtekst in Bela Palanka and Vranje Solpro fired 50 workers each.
Similarly, the Leonija plant in Malošišt will have been closed by the end of the year, leaving 1.900 workers out of a job.
According to some employers, such as Centaur, one of the reasons for leaving was the increase in the minimum wage in Serbia. It grew extraordinarily in October and now attains 500 euros (58.630 dinars) and will increase even more in January to 550 euros.
According to the latest available data, the average salary in Serbia in September 2005 was 109.147 dinars, with the median net salary of 85.267 dinars. It means that half of workers earned up to the specified amount.
Another reason that the state leadership blamed for the departure of companies was the blockades that marked the year 2025.
According to economist Saša Đogović, an extremely high degree of political crisis, an extremely high degree of corruption in the country and the lack of a stimulating institutional environment are the reasons for the absence of foreign investments.
Nevertheless, on Thursday (December 11), the Italian company Ariston opened a new plant in Niš and by the end of the year it will have employed 175 people.
This company will produce cylinders and other parts for heat pumps.
As Vučić said during the opening of the plant, the people of Nis will earn decent wages due to this factory, but consumption in restaurants and shops in Nis will also increase.
He also added that this is the tenth or eleventh factory opened in Niš during his presidency.
As New economy reports, the state provided 22,2 million euros through subsidies for the Ariston plant laid in July 2024.
The commitment of the investor is to employ at least 300 new workers for an indefinite period by the end of 2027 and to invest at least 75 million euros.
According to the contract signed by Ariston and the Ministry of Justice in 2023, the share of the state subsidy of the cost of the entire investment is 29,6 percent.
It is also stipulated that the salary costs for new employees, in the two-year period after reaching the full employment, foreseen by the project, should be at least 7,2 million euros.
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