United Nations development goals (Part 3)

IT is almost the end of October, the so-called UN month. For the past two weeks, I have been featuring essays of some young ones who discussed one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and finding their connection to Economics.

This will be the last of the series. May I just say that I am so proud of these young people because of their critical mindedness and being reflective. They are the next generation of leaders of this world, and because of this, I worry less of how the world will be in the future.

-o0oThis first essay was written by Sachitha Bhat, and she discussed about Low Unemployment.

Low unemployment is one of the key macroeconomic objectives that a country hopes to achieve, and this year, it is even a long-term global goal for sustainable development.

Unemployment is defined as people in the economy who are willing and actively seeking for work, nevertheless are unable to find work. Having a low unemployment rate is crucial, as it complements a positive economic growth.

The unemployment rate in the Philippines, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of April 2017 is 5.7% of the labor force comprising approximately 69,605,000 people. Therefore the number of people unemployed in the Philippines is roughly 3,967,500. Even though there was a decrease in the number of people unemployed by approximately 190,700 individuals, since 2016, Philippines should aim to further decrease unemployment; ultimately contributing to positive economic growth.

One of the easiest ways through which economic growth can be identified is by looking at a country’s GDP. The GDP of the Philippines has been on a constant rise since the year 2009. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country during the year, and can be calculated using the equation: Gross Domestic Product= consumer spending + investment + government spending + (exports – imports).

As there is a decrease in the rate of unemployment, there is an increase in consumer spending. This is due to the fact that as the number of people employed increases, the total income earned by the labor force also increases. Thus contributing to an increase in consumer spending, which is one of the factors determining GDP. A constant decrease in the rate of unemployment might have been the root cause behind a constant increase in GDP since the year 2009.

Even though the number of people employed outweighs the number of people unemployed, there is a major limitation regarding the quality of labor. Numerous citizens are not provided with quality education or education in general.

Currently there are around 3.8 million Filipinos, aged 6 – 24 who are who are not provided with proper education. Therefore providing quality education will not only increase the quality of labor, but also further decrease the number of people unemployed by increasing their qualifications. Also quality education besides decent work and economic growth is another long-term global goal for sustainable development.

Regardless of this limitation the key advantage that the Philippines possesses, is the quantity of labor, due to its high population. The estimated population of the Philippines, during the year 2016 is 103.3 million, ranking 12th most populous in the world.

The sole factor that contributes to the labor force not being able to meet the number of people demand for labor, is that they were not provided with quality education. The Philippines has numerous people who are capable of being employed, if only they were provided with the education opportunities they dream of. -o0oThis second essay was written by Jong-San Byun, and he wrote about Good Health. The United Nations has set 17 Millennium Development Goals for sustainable future. One notable