Assessment of labor potential of rural areas

The article presents the authors’ method to evaluate and analyze labor potential in rural areas. It is focused on the role of human factor in solving the problem of sustainable development of rural territories. It considers the need to apply special tools in the study of labor potential of rural areas in order to justify the management decisions on the allocation of budgetary funds for sustainable development. The work discloses the algorithm to calculate the integral index of labor potential of rural areas, the formulas and the sources of required data. Health, education and activity of the population are the main estimated characteristics of labor potential. The authors estimate them by calculating the partial indices for four statistical indicators: mortality in the working age, number of persons with higher education, number of individual entrepreneurs and in-migration. The developed method is tested on the basis of the Vologda Oblast statistical data. The article reveals the results of the partial and integral indices calculation; the specially compiled map clearly shows the main problems and features of the labor potential distribution in the region, in particular: increased values of the labor potential index in the areas near large cities and in the direction of the Vologda - Veliky Ustyug highway, reduced labor potential in the areas located far from the regional center and major highways...