The number of citizens of Uzbekistan who traveled to Russia to work fell 13.2 percent in H1 of 2026 from a year earlier, to 1.179 million, the Central Bank said in its Labor Market Review.
The figure compares with 1.358 million in January-June 2025.
Remittances from Russia nonetheless kept growing, rising 8.8 percent year on year in the first half of 2026, the report said.
The Central Bank said labor migration is expanding to other destinations. In 2025, the number of migrants from Uzbekistan rose 13.2 percent in the European Union and 10.7 percent in Turkey. As of July 1, 2026, 70,000 citizens of Uzbekistan were in Turkey, up 9.3 percent from a year earlier, while South Korea recorded 102,200, up 3.3 percent.
The bank warned that a decline in labor migration to some countries could in future weigh on remittances, household incomes and consumer demand.
The report also showed that job vacancies advertised in the second quarter of 2026 fell 9.8 percent. Job seekers remained highly active, and competition in the labor market intensified.
For comparison, the report said, 1.495 million citizens of Uzbekistan worked in Russia on patents in 2025.
