Creating new Opportunies for Young People

(Vatican Radio) Young people in Europe face more and more daunting challenges nowadays, especially when it comes to finding a job. In some southern European nations, as many as half of all young people are unemployed.

In recognition of those challenges, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, or COMECE, was one of the organizers of a conference at the European parliament on Wednesday entitled “Creating new opportunities for Young People. Susy Hodges spoke to the moderator at the conference, Father Frank Turner of the Jesuit Social Centre in Brussels.

Listen to the full interview with Father Turner:

Father Turner says the main challenge facing young people nowadays is the dramatic increase in youth unemployment, especially in some southern European countries like Greece and Spain where nearly 50 percent of youths are without a job. An additional problem, he says, is that often even when young people find a job it is "temporary and of a very poor quality."

Father Turner goes on to say that this situation of unemployment coupled with brief spells of highly precarious temporary employment creates a vicious circle, is "very demoralising for young people" and in his view when it exists on a mass scale "it is an extraordinary social evil."