Labor potential implementation efficiency index as an indicator of the quality of the social and labor environment (regional aspect)

The main idea of the article is that the assessment of qualitative and quantitative characteristics of labor potential should be supplemented by analyzing the effectiveness of labor potential implementation. The authors proceed from the observations that indicate that high quality employment potential can be implemented inefficiently. The main reason is the inadequate state of the social and labor environment. The article shows that the Russian scientific community has developed and now widely uses integral indicators of labor potential quality. At the same time the world practice developed integrated indicators of the quality of employment and decent labor. In Russia there are some studies in which the indices of decent labor are calculated. However, they do not answer the key question of this article: do the results of the use of labor potential correspond to its quality? To solve this problem, the authors developed and calculated the labor potential implementation efficiency index for Russian regions for 2005, 2010-2014 and compared it with the indicators of labor potential quality (health, education etc.). The authors found significant discrepancies between the qualitative characteristics of labor potential in the regions and the economic outcomes of its use. Of particular attention are the regions with a high proportion of the population with higher education whose levels of productivity are low. The calculations also show that the majority of Russian regions are concentrated in a segment characterized by a low effectiveness of the socio-labor environment. Thus, the results of the study led the authors to two key insights: the need for purposeful development of high-quality (worthy) social and labor environment conducive to the full realization of human capital; the possibility of the future application of the proposed index as a useful tool for initial classification and ranking of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, for the monitoring and analysis of the regional social-labor environment.