Sample Research Proposal on Changes in Government Intervention

Unemployment has been a serious problem of the UK, a huge challenge for the government to improve the country's labour force. Somehow, through means of strategies and intervention, signs that the UK is slowly winning against unemployment are starting to show up. Although last 2006 the employment rate was stagnant, playing between levelling off and up, the National Statistics (2007) reported: "The number of unemployed people fell by 23,000 over the quarter but increased by 133,000 over the year, to reach 1.69 million". This result showed that with the efforts to improve the labour market, the UK is slowly recovering from unemployment rate, and is now boasting an annual increase. Not only that, workers now last longer than expected. The report also stated that the number of people in employment for the three months ending in December 2006 was 29.04 million (National Statistics, 2007). The results are indeed good news as it levels up UK's labour market further. From 1983 to 1988, the unemployment rate in the UK is 10.9%. This rate dropped to as low as 6.3% in 1999.             Different government interventions have been implemented to help improve the UK labour market. This study assumes that it there were key changes in government strategies from 1991 to 2001. These changes will be explored in this research. First, the demographic trends and rates of unemployment in 1991 and 2001 will be researched in the National Statistics office. The data will be compared to identify changes in unemployment trends after 10 years.  Changes in government interventions to improve UK employment rate will be explored as well. Problem Statement             Employment trends changes over time, and so as the interventions used to improve employment. This study will try to identify the changes in UK government's strategy to improve employment rates, specifically in the years 1991 and 2001. It aims to explore the differences in demographics of unemployment trends from those two different years. The following research questions will be explored: Ø      What are the differences between the unemployment rate in 1991 and the unemployment rate in 2001? Ø      What are the differences between the strategies used by the government to improve unemployment rate in 1991 and the strategies used in 2001? Ø      Did the strategies used to improve unemployment improved from 1991 to 2001? Ø      Is the unemployment rate in 1991 higher compared to the unemployment rate in 2001? Research Objectives             The objective of the study is to be able to identify the demographic differences of unemployment rates between 1991 and 2001; and to identify the differences of government intervention to combat unemployment rates from 1991 to 2001. The following are the goals of the study: Ø      To conduct research in UK National Statistics and obtain census data on unemployment from 1991 to 2001. Ø      To conduct an in-depth literature research for documents on government programs that target unemployment from 1991 to 2001. Ø      To be able to draw a conclusion regarding the trend of unemployment in the UK from 1991 to 2001.   Methodology             Secondary data will be used to complete the research. Previous literatures and statistics will be used to answer the problem of the study. Specifically, the study will search for literatures that pertain to previous government project for improving employment in the UK.             The research will be descriptive and will deduce the hypothesis: "Government employment strategies have improved from 1991 to 2001, but only produced little result".             Documents to be collected are statistical data of employment trends from 1991 to 2001. It will be obtained from the National Census Bureau or the National Statistics office.             Data will be analyzed using percentage analysis. On the other hand, a qualitative interpretation will be conducted to identify the relationship between the demographic trends in the UK from 1991 to 2001, and the evolution of government interventions to improve employment rates.