Slovenian companies are currently prepared to employ 1,500 labor migrants from Uzbekistan, with a minimum monthly salary of €1,100. This was announced by Behzod Musaev, Director of Uzbekistan’s Agency for External Labor Migration (AELM), in an interview with the Sinchalak blog, which he published on his agency’s official Telegram channel.
According to Musaev, during a visit to Ljubljana, the Uzbek delegation held meetings with representatives of 20 of Slovenia’s largest companies. Agreements were reached with seven of them, resulting in demand for 1,500 workers. He noted that salaries could be higher depending on the applicant’s qualifications and language proficiency.
Musaev cited statistics showing that Slovenia’s unemployment rate has reached a historic low — around 3.2–3.5% as of this year. The high level of employment has led to a shortage of skilled labor in the local market, particularly in construction, services, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, education, and information technology.
He added that many of the current vacancies are filled by workers from the Philippines and Nepal, but many of these candidates fail to meet the required employment criteria — creating an opportunity for Uzbek citizens to become competitive candidates.
The AELM director said that a delegation from Slovenia will travel to Tashkent next month, after which separate job application competitions will be announced for positions in the European country. Musaev stressed that one of the key requirements is knowledge of the Slovenian language at level B1 or above. However, he noted that since Slovenian is relatively close to Russian, it should not pose a major challenge for Uzbek applicants. Relevant language courses will soon be organized in Uzbekistan, he added.
As part of his visit to Ljubljana, Musaev met with Greta Metka Barbo Škerbinč, Head of Slovenia’s Employment Service. The meeting resulted in the signing of a “roadmap” for partnership in the field of labor migration.
The topic was also discussed during a meeting between the presidents of the two countries. Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and his Slovenian counterpart Nataša Pirc Musar agreed to develop a formal agreement on organized labor migration. The document will cover aspects such as training programs, language and professional skills adaptation, and labor standards.
