Labor market in Tajikistan

Tajikistan’s labor market is commonly described through the local terms рынок труда, занятость населения and трудовые ресурсы. The 2025 Тадқиқоти қувваи корӣ / Обследование рабочей силы (ОРС), meaning labor force survey, counted 3,018,773 people aged 15 to 75 in the labor force. Men accounted for 64.6% and women for 35.4%. Rural areas accounted for 2,152,231 people, or 71.3% of the total. The largest regional figures were recorded in Sogd with 1,077,647 people and Khatlon with more than 1,000,000; the Republican Subordination Districts counted 528,489, Dushanbe 320,835 and GBAO 90,724. The survey recorded 1,604,641 people with full general secondary education, 576,485 with higher professional education, 479,886 with basic general education and 195,094 with secondary professional education. In 2024, 2,747,800 people were employed in the economy. The non-state sector accounted for 2,234,200 and the state sector for 513,600. Agriculture, hunting and forestry employed 1,629,400 people, or 59.5% of the total. Services employed 851,800 people, or 31.0%. Construction accounted for 117,200, manufacturing for 103,400 and mining for 17,100. Wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair employed 173,300 people, education 270,100, health and social services 127,000, transport and storage 68,700, and public administration, defence and social security 61,300. Agriculture remains the largest source of work, while services increased from 29.4% of employment in 2023 to 31.0% in 2024. Average nominal wages, meaning wages measured before adjusting for price changes, differed sharply by activity. The 2024 average was 2,310.21 TJS per month. Finance and insurance averaged 6,199.30 TJS, information and communication 4,609.84 TJS and mining 4,139.03 TJS. Agriculture averaged 857.43 TJS, while hotels and restaurants averaged 1,342.05 TJS. The national average reached 2,665.9 TJS in June 2025, up 24.2% year on year. Regional averages in that month were 3,510.8 TJS in Dushanbe, 2,529.4 TJS in Sogd, 2,333.7 TJS in GBAO, 2,282.8 TJS in the Republican Subordination Districts and 2,191.9 TJS in Khatlon. In December 2024, the average monthly wage was 3,230.57 TJS for men and 2,184.63 TJS for women. From September 1, 2026, the state minimum wage is 1,300 TJS per month. Formal qualification routes include higher, secondary and initial professional education, short courses, and adult competence recognition and validation. In 2024–25, higher professional institutions recorded 45,729 graduates, secondary professional institutions 22,985 and initial professional institutions 8,400. Employers reported skill gaps of 45% for technical skills, 20% for digital skills, 15% for soft skills, 10% for language skills and 10% for administrative skills. Construction, agriculture, information and communication technology, and manufacturing are priority areas of demand. During the first half of 2025, MoLMEP training and validation involved 36,294 people, including 9,179 in budget-funded programs, 7,828 through self-financing, 7,104 in recognition or validation and 24,111 in ministry centers. Some participants used external centers, which served 12,183 people. Public job matching operates through the Agency of Labor and Employment (ALE) and local labor and employment offices. Registration and referral can lead to vacancies, training, paid public works or small loans for self-employment. The State Employment Program for 2023–2027 targets 294,000 vacancies and 4,000 vacancy fairs; 58,800 vacancies were planned for 2025. In the first half of 2025, ALE recorded 79,870 applicants, 62,399 registered jobseekers and 33,802 officially recognized unemployed people. State measures placed 41,205 people into work or activity. Of 509 vacancy fairs, 10,771 people entered an activity; quotas covered 4,640 people, small loans or self-employment measures 1,199, and paid public works 3,478. A total of 9,550 people received unemployment allowances. Training may be budget-financed or self-financed, and no reliable nationwide fee catalogue or unified vacancy and skills portal has been evidenced. A single consistently operating labor market information system (LMIS) is not yet available nationwide. The Labor Code of 2016, including amendments made in 2024, provides the formal framework for employment rights. Wages cannot fall below the state minimum wage. Collective bargaining and social partnership are established formally: during the first half of 2025, 17,137 collective agreements covered 18,952 eligible organizations, or 90.4%, and 50 regional or sector agreements applied for 2024–2026. Enforcement is uneven. In 998 inspections, authorities recorded 5,182 violations, including 3,853 labor violations, 1,056 occupational-safety or standards violations, 243 employment violations and 30 migration violations. External labor migration is a major part of Tajikistan’s labor market. The Migration Service, MoLMEP, licensed recruiters and the Agency for Employment Abroad organize routes under bilateral agreements. In the first half of 2025, 29 licensed entities organized work abroad for 8,827 people, including 5,648 through the Agency for Employment Abroad. Tajikistan had 13 labor-migration agreements among 37 international agreements with 15 states. Russia remained the main destination, with construction, agriculture and services forming the dominant work profiles. Migration is usually cyclical or temporary. Research from 2024 estimated that 10% of the population was abroad for work, 42% of households had a migrant member, and remittances equaled 47.2% of GDP in 2024. Among people aged 20 to 39 abroad for work, the share was approximately 17% for men and 2% for women. Migration reduces pressure on the domestic labor market but exposes households to foreign entry rules, wages and policy changes. In the first half of 2025, 3,890 people were stopped before departure to Russia because of entry restrictions, more than 23,000 legalized their stay and 63,685 were removed from the controlled-person list. In 2023, monthly wages in Russia were reported at about USD 810 in construction, USD 608 in retail and USD 612 in communal services, compared with about USD 277, USD 154 and USD 111 respectively in Tajikistan. Employment increased from 2,625,300 people in 2023 to 2,747,800 in 2024, but around 150,000 young people enter the labor market each year while only about 30,000 to 40,000 secure employment. The underutilized labor rate was 43.2% in 2023 when students were excluded. Comparisons across years require care because Tajikistan had only three labor force surveys before the 2025 ORS. Development of a labor market information system supported by the World Bank has been under way since 2024.