Employment Components and Ecosystem on Working Poor in an Emerging Economy
Downloads
As an emerging economy, Uzbekistan is progressing rapidly in economic growth. The progress caused the rising number of working poor and poverty rate. Only a few studies focus on the impact on the working poor, especially in emerging economies. Employment components and ecosystems are critical to ensure a sustainable economy, stability, and growth. Information relating to the working poor is limited, and how the working poor navigate through challenges in employment is still unknown. The objective of the study is to explore the impact of employment and the ecosystem on the working poor in Uzbekistan. A quantitative approach was conducted through a face-to-face survey in fourteen states using simple random sampling. Data collected from 3298 respondents was then analyzed through descriptive analysis and multiple regression to investigate the relationship between variables. The findings revealed that employment components like opportunity, retraining, and income fairness are crucial to the working poor, as well as social infrastructure, taxes, and union support. This study contributes to the literature relating to poverty. The study also offers practical insights into how employment matters relating to the working poor, empowering policymakers and researchers to make informed decisions.
Downloads
[1] World Bank Group (2025). Poverty. World Bank, Washington, United States. Available online: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview (accessed on September 2025).
[2] Amponsah, M., Agbola, F. W., & Mahmood, A. (2023). The relationship between poverty, income inequality and inclusive growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Economic Modelling, 126. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2023.106415.
[3] Erlando, A., Riyanto, F. D., & Masakazu, S. (2020). Financial inclusion, economic growth, and poverty alleviation: evidence from eastern Indonesia. Heliyon, 6(10), e05235. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05235.
[4] Affandi, Purwaningsih, Y., Hakim, L., & Mulyaningsih, T. (2025). Interplay between poverty, poverty eradication and sustainable development: A semi-systematic literature review. Global Transitions, 7, 1–20. doi:10.1016/j.glt.2024.11.001.
[5] Heyes, J., & Lewis, P. (2013). Employment protection under fire: Labor market deregulation and employment in the European Union. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 35(4), 587–607. doi:10.1177/0143831x13491842.
[6] Park, Y., & Heshmati, A. (2019). The effects of labor market characteristics on women’s poverty in Korea. Economies, 7(4), 110. doi:10.3390/economies7040110.
[7] Feder, J., & Yu, D. (2019). Employed yet poor: low-wage employment and working poverty in South Africa. Development Southern Africa, 37(3), 363–381. doi:10.1080/0376835x.2019.1597682.
[8] Damaske, S., Bratter, J. L., & Frech, A. (2017). Single mother families and employment, race, and poverty in changing economic times. Social Science Research, 62, 120–133. doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.08.008.
[9] Lu, Y. C., Walker, R., Richard, P., & Younis, M. (2020). Inequalities in poverty and income between single mothers and fathers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(1), 135. doi:10.3390/ijerph17010135.
[10] Wang, Y. P., & Zhou, X. N. (2020). The year 2020, a milestone in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and illness in China. Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 9(1), 1-8. doi:10.1186/s40249-020-0626-5.
[11] Parolin, Z., & Lee, E. K. (2022). The Role of Poverty and Racial Discrimination in Exacerbating the Health Consequences of COVID-19. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, 7. doi:10.1016/j.lana.2021.100178.
[12] Ran, R., Ni, Z., Hua, L., & Li, T. (2022). Does China’s poverty alleviation policy improve the quality of the ecological environment in poverty-stricken areas? Frontiers in Environmental Science, 10. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2022.1067339.
[13] Ayoo, C. (2022). Poverty Reduction Strategies in Developing Countries. Rural Development - Education, Sustainability, Multifunctionality, IntechOpen, London, United Kingdom. doi:10.5772/intechopen.101472.
[14] Nicholas, D. (2020). Activity Employment in Autism: Reflections on the Literature and Steps for Moving Forward. Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18(3), 5–11. doi:10.17759/autdd.2020180301.
[15] Zhang, S., Paterson, J. S., & Hujala, T. (2021). Sustaining Forest Ecosystem Services Through Social Enterprises: Motivations and Challenges from a Case Study in Scotland. Small-Scale Forestry, 20(4), 627–647. doi:10.1007/s11842-021-09484-7.
[16] Peng, Y., Welden, N., & Renaud, F. G. (2023). A framework for integrating ecosystem services indicators into vulnerability and risk assessments of deltaic social-ecological systems. Journal of Environmental Management, 326. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116682.
[17] Babaev, S., & Johnston, T. (2022). Developing Tourism–the path out of poverty for Uzbekistan. International Conference on Tourism Research, 15(1), 578–580. doi:10.34190/ictr.15.1.284.
[18] ILO. (2021). World Employment and Social Outlook 2021. International Labor Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_795453.pdf (accessed on September 2025).
[19] Gong, J., Dai, X., Wang, L., Niu, Z., Cao, Q., & Huang, C. (2023). The Impact of Urbanization on the Supply–Demand Relationship of Ecosystem Services in the Yangtze River Middle Reaches Urban Agglomeration. Remote Sensing, 15(19), 4749. doi:10.3390/rs15194749.
[20] Cedefop. (2024). Thematic country review on upskilling pathways for low-skilled adults in France: key findings of the second and third research phases and suggestions for future action. European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), Thessaloniki , Greece.
[21] Phillips, T. M. (2012). An Exploration of the Triarchic Model of Poverty. Journal of Poverty, 16(2), 220–231. doi:10.1080/10875549.2012.667061.
[22] ILO (2019). Poor working conditions are main global employment challenge. International Labor Organization (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/poor-working-conditions-are-main-global-employment-challenge (accessed on September 2025).
[23] McPhearson, T., Hamstead, Z. A., & Kremer, P. (2014). Urban ecosystem services for resilience planning and management in New York City. Ambio, 43(4), 502–515. doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0509-8.
[24] Norton, A., Seddon, N., Agrawal, A., Shakya, C., Kaur, N., & Porras, I. (2020). Harnessing employment-based social assistance programmes to scale up nature-based climate action. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375(1794). doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0127.
[25] Vaalavuo, M., & Sirniö, O. (2022). Jobs against poverty: a fixed-effects analysis on the link between gaining employment and exiting poverty in Europe. European Societies, 24(4), 431–462. doi:10.1080/14616696.2022.2088821.
[26] Bavaro, M., & Raitano, M. (2024). Is working enough to escape poverty? Evidence on low-paid workers in Italy. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 69, 495–511. doi:10.1016/j.strueco.2024.03.008.
[27] Newman, B. J. (2022). Economic Inequality, the Working Poor, and Belief in the American Dream. Public Opinion Quarterly, 86(4), 944–954. doi:10.1093/poq/nfac043.
[28] Markefke, T., & Müller-Rehm, R. (2024). Labor market regulation and the cyclicality of involuntary part-time work. Journal for Labor Market Research, 58(1), 5. doi:10.1186/s12651-024-00363-0.
[29] Sehnbruch, K., Apablaza, M., & Foster, J. (2024). Poor-Quality Employment: Who Is Deprived in Our Labor Markets? LSE Public Policy Review, 3(2), 1–16. doi:10.31389/lseppr.104.
[30] Filippi, S., Salvador Casara, B. G., Pirrone, D., Yerkes, M., & Suitner, C. (2023). Economic inequality increases the number of hours worked and decreases work-life balance perceptions: Longitudinal and experimental evidence. Royal Society Open Science, 10(10), 230187. doi:10.1098/rsos.230187.
[31] Memon, A. H., Khahro, S. H., Memon, N. A., Memon, Z. A., & Mustafa, A. (2023). Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance in the Construction Industry of Pakistan. Sustainability (Switzerland), 15(11), 8699. doi:10.3390/su15118699.
[32] Vanderpool, R. C., Swanberg, J. E., & Chambers, M. D. (2013). A Narrative Review of the Confluence of Breast Cancer and Low-wage Employment and Its Impact on Receipt of Guideline-recommended Treatment. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 2(5), 75–85. doi:10.7453/gahmj.2013.046.
[33] Dobbins, T. (2023). Why employment relations matter(s) for governance of problems for labor in the real world of work. Labor and Industry, 33(4), 473–489. doi:10.1080/10301763.2024.2317185.
[34] Adamson, M., & Roper, I. (2019). ‘Good’ Jobs and ‘Bad’ Jobs: Contemplating Job Quality in Different Contexts. Work, Employment and Society, 33(4), 551–559. doi:10.1177/0950017019855510.
[35] Alferez Mayer, E., Silva-Peñaherrera, -Michael, Ayala-Garcia, A., Sabastizagal-Vela, I., & G. Benavides, F. (2022). Informal Employment, Working Conditions, and Self-Perceived Health: A Cross-Sectional Study in Urban Working Population in Peru. Preprints, 1-9.doi:10.20944/preprints202203.0030.v1.
[36] Zhenjing, G., Chupradit, S., Ku, K. Y., Nassani, A. A., & Haffar, M. (2022). Impact of Employees’ Workplace Environment on Employees’ Performance: A Multi-Mediation Model. Frontiers in Public Health, 10. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.890400.
[37] Pratap, P., Dickson, A., Love, M., Zanoni, J., Donato, C., Flynn, M. A., & Schulte, P. A. (2021). Public health impacts of underemployment and unemployment in the united states: Exploring perceptions, gaps and opportunities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19), 10021. doi:10.3390/ijerph181910021.
[38] Runge, K., van Zon, S. K. R., Henkens, K., & Bültmann, U. (2024). Metabolic syndrome and poor self-rated health as risk factors for premature employment exit: a longitudinal study among 55 016 middle-aged and older workers from the Lifelines Cohort Study and Biobank. European Journal of Public Health, 34(2), 309–315. doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckad219.
[39] Ahmed, S. K. (2024). How to choose a sampling technique and determine sample size for research: A simplified guide for researchers. Oral Oncology Reports, 12. doi:10.1016/j.oor.2024.100662.
[40] Filandri, M., Pasqua, S., & Struffolino, E. (2020). Being Working Poor or Feeling Working Poor? The Role of Work Intensity and Job Stability for Subjective Poverty. Social Indicators Research, 147(3), 781–803. doi:10.1007/s11205-019-02174-0.
[41] Rossi, A. (2020). Women, Working Conditions, and Industrial Hubs. The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Hubs and Economic Development, 424–437, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198850434.013.22.
[42] Pohlan, L. (2019). Unemployment and social exclusion. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 164, 273–299. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2019.06.006.
[43] ILO. (2019). Poor working conditions are main global employment challenge.International Labor Organization (ILO), Geneva, Switzerland. Available online: https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/poor-working-conditions-are-main-global-employment-challenge (accessed on September 2025).
[44] Gazi, M. A. I., Al Masud, A., Yusof, M. F., Islam, M. A., Rahman, M. K., & Wang, Q. (2024). Factors affecting the quality of work life for industrial labor force: empirical evidence from a developing country. BMC Psychology, 12(1), 589. doi:10.1186/s40359-024-02073-1.
[45] Filandri, M., & Struffolino, E. (2019). Individual and household in-work poverty in Europe: understanding the role of labor market characteristics. European Societies, 21(1), 130–157. doi:10.1080/14616696.2018.1536800.
- This work (including HTML and PDF Files) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.



















