Publication Details
Abstract
This study develops a multidimensional framework for measuring productive employment across Uzbekistan’s regions and demonstrates its diagnostic use through an open-data pilot module. Conventional labor-market monitoring emphasizes employment and unemployment counts but does not capture job formality, stability, earnings, social protection, skill matching, labor productivity, occupational safety, or employment-related poverty reduction. The proposed Regional Productive Employment Index integrates these eight dimensions into a 0–100 composite measure. The full-index weights are presented as provisional policy-informed weights requiring subsequent expert and empirical validation. Because several administrative variables are unavailable in harmonized regional series, the pilot is calculated for 14 territorial units using employment growth in 2020–2025, average monthly wages in 2025, and aggregate income per capita in 2025. The pilot reveals pronounced territorial asymmetry: Tashkent city records the maximum score and Navoi region forms a distinct second tier. An equal-weight sensitivity test for the three-variable pilot produces a highly similar ranking (Spearman’s ρ = 0.991**, n = 14, two-tailed P<0.01); this test does not validate the weights of the full eight-block index. Additional outlier and exclusion checks confirm high rank stability but also show sensitivity to indicator omission. The findings support gradual institutionalization of the full index as a regional diagnostic tool, conditional on integrating administrative data on contracts, social insurance, skill matching, safety, and working poverty.