The Extent to Which Socioeconomic Factors Explain Labor Market Supply by Gender: A Case Study of Uzbekistan

Abstract

The supply side of labor market is largely determined by economic reasons, but social aspects should also be taken into consideration. The purpose of this article is to examine how much the labor supply in Uzbekistan is influenced by social and economic factors. The study makes use of time series data that was gathered from the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan's Statistics Agency. The data spans more than 20 years, from 2000 to 2021. To investigate the connection between several economic and social factors and the labor force participation rate (LFPR), the study uses structural equation modeling, or SEM. The results show that LFPR is negatively and statistically significantly impacted by real income per capita and urbanization levels. This implies that fewer people are entering the labor force as urbanization and per capita wealth rise. However, LFPR is positively and significantly impacted by the frequency of marriages and divorces, suggesting that changes in marital status and family structure lead to higher labor force participation.