Untapped potential: an assessment of underutilization of qualitative characteristics of the working population

The article summarizes the results of the development and primary approbation of the methodology for assessing the underutilization of the quality of the region's labor potential. The methodology allows defining the qualitative characteristics of the working population of working age, most finding themselves not in demand in their specialties in the labor activity at the present time. The main idea of the methodology, representing its scientiϔic novelty, is to use the data on the quality of the working-age population in a an integrated way and compare it with the indicators of the level of implementation of the measured qualities in the labor process, which allows making more informed judgments of the real level of underutilization of labor opportunities of the population. The proposed methodology for assessing the unrealized quality of labor potential of the region is based on the experience of longstanding monitoring of the qualitative state of labor potential of the population of the Vologda Oblast, gained by the Institute of SocioEconomic Development of Territories of Russian Academy of Science, on the concept of qualitative characteristics of the population of the Institute of the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences and author»s developments in simulation and implementation assessment of labor potential of the region. The calculations are carried out in 4 steps. The ϔirst step is to assess the quality of labor potential (calculation of physical and mental health indices, cognitive and creative potentials, communication skills, cultural and moral levels, the need for achievement). At the second step, the level of implementation of the quality of labor potential (in percentage terms) is estimated. The third step is to assess the level of underutilization of the quality of labor potential by calculating the difference between the maximum possible level (100%) and the real level of the implementation of labor potential. At the ϔfinal fourth step, the unrealized quality of the labor potential is estimated by calculating the product of the indices calculated in the first step and the corresponding underutilization levels calculated in the third step. For the approbation of the methodology, the values of the level of underutilization and indices of the unrealized quality of labor potential by socio-demographic groups of the population of the Vologda Oblast were calculated. The proposed methodology can be used in such promising areas of studies as identificationof growth factors in the implementation of labor potential of the region and the search for possible ways of more rationalized use of available labor resources.