Life Expectancy VS Employment Rate

Anaiah Davis

Marina Isakowitz

Statistics

January 2017

Many people around the world believe that in some countries, there are both low rates of employment and life expectancy, due to factors of unemployment leading to lower life expectancy. Studies have shown that “Poorly educated women that were unemployed were also more likely to die earlier” (Groth). It’s a thought process that seems to be correct, but it lead me to wonder: if unemployment affected life expectancy, did employment change how long people lived as well? I wanted to see if having a job/career affected how long a human would live. Although it seem that there should be a solid relationship between employment rate and life expectancy, my research has shown there is no correlation between these two categories, and this shows in countries especially like the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Congo, where the two variables do not correlate at all.

Before I could begin, I had to create graphs on the website Gapminder. One graph would have a world view using my two variables, employment rate for individuals 15 and older and life expectancy, and the next graph would only have the three countries I’ve chosen (Trinidad and Tobago, The Philippines, and The Congo). In both graphs, the x axis is the percentage of individuals 15  and older who are employed, and the y axis is the life expectancy in years. The size of the bubbles represent the population size, and so judging by the second graph (Graph 1.2), you can tell the Trinidad and Tobago has the smallest population while the Philippines has the biggest population size of all 3 countries. The color of the bubbles represent the region each country is, and so based off this information, in the second graph the Philippines are in Asia (red), the Congo is in Africa (blue), and Trinidad and Tobago is in the Americas (green).

In the first graph, we can see that most countries are in the middle in terms of employment rate, and are pretty high in terms of life expectancy. There are a few African countries that are very high in terms of employment rate, even though they don’t have the highest life expectancy, and this is due to increased youth job employment in African countries and more “young people are trying to find more productive work” ("New Report Outlines Priorities To Address Africa’S Youth Employment Challenge"), although not a lot of people are living longer.

In graph two, we first analyze Trinidad and Tobago. As the percentage rate of employment in the country continuously increased (from 45% to 62.6%), the life expectancy has stayed a bit constant, raising ever so slightly at times. This means that the country has seen much more people working in recent years, but the life expectancy has barely moved from its place.

For the Philippines, the employment rate has decreased and increased multiple times during the years, making a zigzag like pattern on the graph, while the life expectancy barely moved an inch. A year where the employment rate went quite south was the year 2000, and this made me ponder why so many individuals were unemployed in 2000, and what caused the non-constant employment rate in the country. One reason for the fluctuating employment rate during the 90’s was due to the Philippines 2000 economic reform, implemented by then President Fidel Ramos, with the goal of the dismantling of cartels and monopolies, opening up of domestic industries to foreign competition, lowering of tariff barriers to stimulate competition and reduce incentives to smuggling, and de-regulation of certain graft-prone sectors. Although met with opposition from the business interests and government personalities, this could be a key reason on why the employment rate for the Philippines was everywhere.

In terms of the year 2000, which saw a steep decline in the employment rate, this was due to the trial of President Joseph Estrada, who was “charged with plundering more than $80m from state funds while in office (Philippines Profile- Timeline)”. This year is when most Filipinos struggled with poverty, rebellion from Muslim groups, “and lawlessness amid accusations of corruption, cronyism, and economic failure.” The unemployment rate at this time was also high, “and economic growth, at one of the lowest rates in the region, was insufficient to raise the rapidly increasing population from poverty (Bradsher)” and due to the ongrowing economic problems, a stock market scandal, and guerrilla challenges, foreign investment was discouraged, and it was needed to help the economy grow. However, the employment has slowly been rising over the past few years, which is a good sign, but this helps prove the point that life expectancy does not correlate with the employment rate.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there was a steep drop in 1996 in terms of life expectancy, and it continuously dropped and increased. Even with the drops, the employment rate wasn’t affected as I thought it would, which brings me to the question on what happened in 1996 that cause a sudden drop in life expectancy and why didn’t it affect the employment rate that much (it moved about .1 percent). The reason for this was due to the first and second Congo wars. It became with a genocide, where “Hutu-power groups (called the Interahamwe and the Impuzamugambi) led mass killings of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus, murdering 800,000 people in approximately 100 days (Zapata)”.  Due to the murdering of so many people, about 2 million refugees poured into the Congo from the western border of Rwanda, mostly Hutu, and “They terrorized and robbed the local population with impunity until October 1996, when eastern Congolese Banyamulenge (Tutsi) led an uprising to force the Rwandans out of the Congo, sparking the First Congo War.” Since there were 2 wars (1996-2003), this could be the strongest reason on why the life expectancy in the country fluctuated as much as it did.

Based on my research and what I know about the correlation between employment rate and life expectancy, individuals could survive in countries without a job (it doesn’t affect how long they can live),  and although employment rate could be higher than expected, that doesn’t mean that everyone is prospering and living longer in that country. And it proven in countries that reside in Africa, and my personal three countries.

Works Cited

Bradsher, Henry. "Philippines In 2000". Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., 2000. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.

Groth, Aimee. "Being Unemployed Could Shorten Your Lifespan". Business Insider. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Jan. 2017.

"New Report Outlines Priorities To Address Africa’S Youth Employment Challenge". World Bank. N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.

"Philippines Profile - Timeline - BBC News". BBC News. N.p., 2017. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.

Zapata, Mollie. "Congo: The First And Second Wars, 1996-2003 | Enough Project". Enoughproject.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.