by Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Economic recovery needs to focus on job creation, especially for young adults, and protecting workers, a Vatican official said.
“The path forward to an effective recovery presupposes a new vision and strategic investments to provide employment and to sustain enterprises,” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to U.N. agencies based in Geneva.
The archbishop made his comments June 7 during the May 30-June 14 International Labor Conference in Geneva.
“A quick recovery doesn’t seem realistic,” he said referring to the continued lack of full-time, part-time and secure employment in the wake of the global economic crisis.

New economic paradigms need to focus on “true development” that centers on the human person and protects his or her dignity and rights, he said.

“Development needs to be employment-oriented,” especially in regard to young people who bear the heaviest burden from unemployment, underemployment or a lack of job stability, he said.

Poverty, crime, substance abuse, social instability, increased welfare costs and loss of tax revenues are just some of the consequences of large unemployment rates for youth, he said.

Too many young workers end up getting paid under the table, and those who have legal employment often face job insecurity and “the constant pressure of subcontracting, which brings lower wages and lack of protection in the area of social security, preventing many from leading a decent life,” said Archbishop Tomasi.

Increased mobility of workers and “endemic” deregulation also can create “great psychological and spiritual suffering,” he said, making it hard for young people to make “coherent life plans, including marriage.”