The Church and the Problem of Unemployment
The Church and the Problem of Unemployment
Unemployment is a serious problem from which many problems are generated.
For when a person does not find work, he may be led into deviation. And perhaps some sects may tempt him in order to attract him to them. Also, not obtaining work delays the age of marriage, with all the dangers that involves for both the young man and the young woman.
Unemployment is a natural result of technological growth and the replacement of humans with machines:
And this is very clear in all fields of agriculture and industry, where one machine takes the place of dozens and hundreds of people. We see this in irrigation, in transportation, in construction. We even see it in weaving. And even in translation using computers, and in printing, and in many other fields…
On this occasion, we held a seminar for the Institute of Care about unemployment.
[This seminar was held in early July, and we will publish its summary, God willing.]
One method of treating the problem of unemployment is Vocational Training.
This project is carried out in our Church by the Bishopric of Services, and also by the state whose services we can benefit from. Some companies also carry it out, to prepare employees, workers, and technicians for themselves. Vocational training was known in the Old Testament. And Saint Paul the Apostle said (concerning what he had previously learned): “these hands have ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me” (Acts 20:34).
Many bodies in the Church carry out this mission.
For example, the “workshops” that exist in the majority of churches, which train in sewing and weaving and produce many clothes that are sold in the church exhibition. Some churches also make clerical vestments and the church’s needs of coverings. And some ladies of the churches prepare kinds of food that are also sold in exhibitions. Indeed, we have also found in the monasteries the spread of many kinds of artistic works, too numerous to count because of their variety, which the monks or nuns make, with some workers helping under monastic supervision… And I could almost say that what Khan El-Khalili used to produce, the monasteries and many of our churches now produce. And in this there is training in work through which some benefit in experience…
Beside all these artistic works, and sewing, and home management, there are also carpentry works with their many details.
The Bishopric of Services makes household furniture, bedrooms, kitchens, and the like. Some monasteries and dioceses also carry out such work at low prices, not for profit but to help the needy. Carpentry work sometimes enters into art, such as models, icons, or their frames.
What helps eliminate unemployment is creating work projects for individuals, families, or institutions. And here we differentiate between large projects and small projects, and between projects suitable for the countryside and those suitable for the city.
Large projects include a fully equipped carpentry workshop: a machine suitable for planing, smoothing, sawing, and ornamentation. It is suitable for mass production, but works on it two, three, or four workers. So it does not eliminate unemployment, but it generates income that can be used for the poor if a diocese or a church runs it.
As for small projects, they are necessary for an individual or a family.
I tasked the specialists in the Bishopric of Services with presenting a study that includes a list of small projects, whether for the countryside or the city. And when we give a family two thousand pounds, or three or four, to guarantee that it lives and sustains itself, instead of continuous monthly aid, this is more beneficial for them and for us, and a more stable and secure solution. For example: we teach a woman sewing and give her a sewing machine.
For men there is training in construction work, plumbing, many electrical works, blacksmithing, and other fields.
This includes plastering, whitewashing, painting, and tile installation. Some may enter artistic fields such as machine repair, like those who work in motor rewinding, or car repair, or radio and television repair, or repairing video devices, stoves, and the like.
I remember that when the state entered the project of rebuilding the Canal cities in the 1970s, some engineers preferred working in installing faience and ceramic tiles, where one of them would earn 15 pounds per square meter. If he installed ten meters a day, his daily income reached 150 pounds—many times his salary…
Work is not a shame; the shame is in laziness and placing the entire burden on the Church to help those who do not work.
There are artistic fields taught by industrial institutes at a high level, such as the Don Bosco Institute run by our Catholic brethren, which helps graduate competent workers sought after by factories and employers.
And we want in the Church to establish an industrial institute compatible with the high level that technology has reached in our days, helping eliminate part of unemployment and offering our country engineers and skilled workers.
Competence will impose itself on the surrounding work environment that needs it.
An employer cares to find the competent worker who helps him carry out his project, whatever the religion or denomination of that competent person. So an unemployed person should not excuse himself with such reasons, but should have the competence and excellence that support him.
There is another field that helps with work for the educated:
Language. For example, there is a difference between a graduate with a Bachelor of Commerce—of whom there are tens of thousands—and another graduate with the same degree but who masters English, French, or German. No doubt his job opportunities are wider, whether in government offices, companies, banks, hotels, or tourism.
And if this graduate masters typing in these languages on the typewriter or on the computer, his job opportunities will be available.
Therefore, my advice to you is to have abilities that distinguish you and qualify you.
And the Church helps you in this. It has established centers for teaching languages, the typewriter, and the computer. It has also established centers for training in many crafts… So train yourselves in abilities that support your academic degrees.
More than a quarter of a million graduate from our universities every year, and the state is not able to employ them all. What then is the solution?
The solution is that you either be an employer or fit for employment.
And your fitness for work depends on the competencies, abilities, and capabilities you distinguish yourself by in language, technical work, and computer skills. As a result of the spread of computers and their advancement, some say that a time will come when the definition of an illiterate person is not the one who does not know reading and writing, but the one who does not know the computer!!
Learn the computer, for the future of work belongs to it…
And the Church is ready to help you in this field. Indeed, we have decided to teach computer in the Theological College as well, for its benefit to the clergyman, and the state also works to teach it.
We must think of beneficial and well-studied projects to eliminate unemployment.
And the magazine welcomes publishing every practical idea in this field. We also wish to hold another seminar for the Coptic associations, to listen to them and benefit from their experiences in this subject and the extent of their contribution to it.
As for the countryside, there are other projects:
Such as beekeeping projects, raising poultry, sheep, and cattle, means of transporting crops, factories for dairy products and all food products, agricultural projects, and contributing to literacy eradication, and other matters for which there is no space now…
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