Seoul has officially confirmed a sharp reduction in the scale of recruiting foreign labor under its plan for the coming years. According to data released by Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor, the 2026 cap for E-9 category visas (unskilled workers) has been set at 80,000 people. This decision indicates a major shift in the country’s labor market, with demand for workers declining in several key sectors. This was reported by upl.uzreports.
The decline is also clearly visible in figures provided by Uzbekistan’s Migration Agency: the 2026 quota is nearly 40% lower than the 130,000 slots in 2025. Considering that the limit was 165,000 in 2024, the current figure has been reduced by more than half. Experts attribute this to the end of the “high demand” phase seen during the post-COVID-19 recovery period.
By sector, the largest share was allocated to manufacturing—50,000 visas are set aside for this area. Agriculture will be limited to 10,000 workers, while fisheries will be capped at 7,000. Only 1,000 permits will be issued for services, and construction—currently in stagnation—will receive a quota of 2,000 people. In addition, the government is keeping a reserve of 10,000 visas and plans to distribute it quickly based on companies’ needs. A separate shipbuilding quota maintained over the past two years has now been merged into the overall industrial limit.
The new rules also tighten regional restrictions: in major megacities, the share of foreign employees must not exceed 20%, while in provincial areas it is set at 30%. Officials are encouraging companies to relocate production away from the center: if a company moves capacity from the city to rural areas, it will gain the right to hire migrants without a strict numerical cap, based on actual demand.
Currently, around 1.1 million foreign nationals are officially employed in South Korea. Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Kwon Chan-jun emphasized that the state strategy is now shifting from quantity to quality: rather than mass recruitment, the government wants to focus on the appropriateness of hiring and systematically improving the skills of workers already in the country or arriving.
For Uzbekistan, this news increases the need to review workforce training programs related to labor migration. Given that today is Tuesday, December 30, 2025, Seoul’s decision is expected to become one of the key factors shaping the external labor market in the next cycle.
At the same time, South Korea remains one of the world’s fastest-aging countries. While the quota for unskilled workers is shrinking, the government is simultaneously easing the visa process for highly skilled technical specialists and engineers in an effort to maintain technological stability.
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