MODULE 1. SOCIETAL PROBLEMS

 Activity 1.1.  Determine the unemployment rates of the past ten years from National Economic Development Authority sources.  Plot the rates on a two-dimensional plane with the x-axis representing the years.  Connect the points with a line.  Is the unemployment rate increasing or decreasing?

If you look at the chart, the unemployment rate has decreased by year 2012 and was at its peak during the year 2002.

“The unemployment rate can be defined as the number of people looking for a job divided by the labour force. Changes in unemployment depend mostly on the non-employed people looking for jobs, of employed people who lose their jobs and look for new ones and of people who stop looking for employment.” ¹

Activity 1.2.  Listed below are three societal problems requiring statistics that need yearly updates.  For each of these problems associated with underdevelopment, research the figures for the past ten years.  Draft four graphs similar to the one you drew in Exercise 1 for unemployment.  Present and discuss your conclusions to the class.  Do not forget to cite your references.

 1.  FOOD PRODUCTION

We wonder why there are still a lot of people underfed despite of the enough supplies of food.  According to Danielle Knight, increasing food production is not the solution.  "The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food". Therefore solving the poverty problem is what is what we needed to solve world hunger.

2.  ILLITERACY

The Literacy rate; youth total (% of people ages 15-24) in Philippines was reported at 97.75 in 2008, according to the World Bank. Youth literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.  As Philippines is beginning to step on the modern world, literate people have increased in number as time goes by.

3.  SPIRALING NATIONAL DEBT

As of October 2011 our Government National Debt reached at PhP4,898,340,000,000.00 (P4,898.34 Billion or P4.898 Trillion).  That the Philippine national debt both foreign and national combined.

REFERENCES:

1. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/philippines/unemployment-rate

2.http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2002/disposable_planet/food/

3. http://www.psrast.org/nowohu.htm

4.http://www.tradingeconomics.com/philippines/literacy-rate-youth-total-percent-of-people-ages-15-24-wb-data.html

5.http://monkeysocietyblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/did-you-ever-care-what-this-number.html