Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Flash Image Rotator Module by Joomlashack.
Image 1 Title
Image 2 Title
Image 3 Title
Image 4 Title
Image 5 Title
| Press Release 2005-08-25 |
|
|
|
|
Unemployment Continues to Rise as Young Workers are being Sold Out by Big Business In the last few months we have heard about company bosses buying and selling shares and making million-euro profits in the space of 5 minutes. There have also been mergers, sell-offs of public assets, and companies and factories moving abroad to cut costs and increase profits. At what cost? At the cost of workers and especially young workers: young people who have hopes and dreams and aspirations for a future with security; who are trying to make ends meet on a daily basis to ensure that they and their families can live decently. How are young people supposed to have a secure future if they end up as another unemployment statistic? The International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) celebrates its founding day as an international organisation on 25 August. This year the IYCW wants to remind the public and press that the problem of unemployment must not be left behind because there is more sensational news to be followed. “If we really want an end to this problem”, says Ms Cirocco, the General Secretary of the IYCW, “then we need to pay attention to this reality. Unemployment is on the rise and growing numbers of young people around the world are losing hope for their future”. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its report on Youth Employment (which was the theme for this year’s ILO Conference), states that “the youth unemployment rate is persistently high throughout the world, most recently estimated at 88 million young people or 47 per cent of the global unemployed, with young women in many countries more likely to be unemployed than young men.” It also states that “This pattern seems likely to continue, or deteriorate further, in the absence of significant economic growth and development…” Source: Youth: Pathways to decent work, Report VI Promoting youth employment – Tackling the challenge, ILO International Labour Conference 93rd Session 2005. This is an alarming number of young people without work: 88 million! This is really a catastrophe for our world especially when we see what is happening to young workers in this situation. They are in desperate poverty, selling whatever they have to be able to earn something to eat; still living at home, dependent on their parents and feeling a burden to their family; family tensions rising due to resentment for the situation; many young workers turning to drugs and alcohol abuse, crime and even suicide. So many young people are long-term unemployed and locked into the cycle with no way out: Is there really no way out of this appalling situation? The IYCW believes there are many ways that governments and big business and society can bring about a change and reduce, if not, eliminate unemployment altogether. “The UN Millennium Development Goals are what all nations are supposed to be working on. Ensuring employment for young people is one of these goals and must be met by 2015”, states Ms Cirocco. She continues, “the IYCW believes that there are many ways of ensuring this such as through:
Ms Cirocco concludes, “These are just some ways that we could reach an end to this appalling situation but this relies on a real commitment and also a change in attitude and way of life by everyone in society. It means living more community life rather than individualistic one. It means setting up more social support for these young people so that they can feel they belong… These changes must happen for the sake of our young people, the development of society and a real end to poverty”. For further information contact: |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
