Work is a fundamental right and a good for mankind,619Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 26: AAS 58 (1966), 1046-1047; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 9, 18: AAS 73 (1981), 598-600, 622-625; John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (25 April 1997), 3: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 14 May 1997, p. 5; John Paul II, Message for the 1999 World Day of Peace, 8: AAS 91 (1999), 382-383. a useful good, worthy of man because it is an appropriate way for him to give expression to and enhance his human dignity. The Church teaches the value of work not only because it is always something that belongs to the person but also because of its nature as something necessary.620Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 128. Work is needed to form and maintain a family,621Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 10: AAS 73 (1981), 600-602. to have a right to property,622Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 103; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 14: AAS 73 (1981), 612-616; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 31: AAS 83 (1991), 831-832. to contribute to the common good of the human family.623Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 16: AAS 73 (1981), 618-620. In considering the moral implications that the question of work has for social life, the Church cannot fail to indicate unemployment as a “real social disaster”,624John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 18: AAS 73 (1981), 623. above all with regard to the younger generations.
Work is a good belonging to all people and must be made available to all who are capable of engaging in it. “Full employment” therefore remains a mandatory objective for every economic system oriented towards justice and the common good. A society in which the right to work is thwarted or systematically denied, and in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, “cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace”.625John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 43: AAS 83 (1991), 848; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2433. An important role and, consequently, a particular and grave responsibility in this area falls to “indirect employers”,626Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 17: AAS 73 (1981), 620-622. that is, those subjects — persons or institutions of various types — in a position to direct, at the national or international level, policies concerning labour and the economy.
The planning capacity of a society oriented towards the common good and looking to the future is measured also and above all on the basis of the employment prospects that it is able to offer. The high level of unemployment, the presence of obsolete educational systems and of persistent difficulties in gaining access to professional formation and the job market represent, especially for many young people, a huge obstacle on the road to human and professional fulfilment. In fact, those who are unemployed or underemployed suffer the profound negative consequences that such a situation creates in a personality and they run the risk of being marginalized within society, of becoming victims of social exclusion.627Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2436. In general, this is the drama that strikes not only young people, but also women, less specialized workers, the persons with disabilities, immigrants, ex-convicts, the illiterate, all those who face greater difficulties in the attempt to find their place in the world of employment.
Maintaining employment depends more and more on one's professional capabilities.628Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 66: AAS 58 (1966), 1087-1088. Instructional and educational systems must not neglect human or technological formation, which are necessary for gainfully fulfilling one's responsibilities. The ever more widespread necessity of changing jobs many times in one's lifetime makes it imperative that the educational system encourage people to be open to on-going updating and re-training. Young people should be taught to act upon their own initiative, to accept the responsibility of facing with adequate competencies the risks connected with a fluid economic context that is often unpredictable in the way it evolves.629Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 12: AAS 73 (1981), 605-608. Equally indispensable is the task of offering suitable courses of formation for adults seeking re-training and for the unemployed. More generally, people need concrete forms of support as they journey in the world of work, starting precisely with formational systems, so that it will be less difficult to cope with periods of change, uncertainty and instability.