Pope Francis' September prayer intention, which is entrusted to the universal Apostleship of Prayer, deals with young people: "That opportunities for education and employment may increase for all young people." He said something along those lines just before he flew to Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013. He bemoaned the possibility of a “lost generation” of young people. “The global crisis has brought nothing good to young people,” he said. “We run the risk of having a generation without work.”

A year later, he said something similar in speaking directly to young people in Italy: “I would not like to finish without saying a few words on a problem that affects you as you experience it in your current life: unemployment. … We cannot resign ourselves to losing a generation of young people who do not have the dignity of work! … A generation without work is a future defeat for the country and for humanity. … We must fight against this, and help each other to find a solution, through help and solidarity.”

Youth unemployment is an issue around the world. We see it firsthand here in North America, but it is also in evidence throughout the world, whether developed or developing. Those who reflect on youth unemployment worry about the long-term effects on both the young and our culture. The Globe and Mail has had a few pieces on how the issue is creating people who constantly miss out on opportunities for advancement by having a résumé filled with menial jobs.

We’ve seen the effects of what happens when there are increasing numbers of bored young people, youth opting out of a concern for the culture, youth opting out of hope for the future, and so on. They end up being forced to settle for a McJob or work at places such Starbucks.

However, Starbucks is not a bad place to end up. For a start, they are good to their employees. A creative piece of news came in 2014 from Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks. At its U.S. stores, the coffee chain struck a partnership with Arizona State University, whereby eligible Starbucks employees in the U.S. could complete a university education and the company would cover the cost. ASU has a top-ranked online degree program. This creative project has the potential to further the education of Starbucks employees across the U.S. I haven’t heard of anything similar in Canada. Is there an imaginative leader out there?

Wikipedia offers this overview of youth unemployment statistics. “Youth unemployment rates are historically four to five times more than the adult rates in every country in the world. In 2012, youth made up to 40% of the world unemployed, with a global youth unemployment rate of 12.6%. Close to 75 million youth were unemployed worldwide. There are 1.2 billion youth in the world aged between 15 and 24, accounting for 17% of the world's population. 87% of them live in developing countries.

Canada's economy has braved the global recession better than many others. But last year, 14.3 percent of Canadian youth were unemployed, up from 11.2 percent in 2007 and double the current national jobless rate of 7.2 percent, according to Statistics Canada.”

In other words, this country is not immune from the problem. Let’s join Pope Francis in praying for young people who are affected by these issues. But let us also pray for a few creative political and business leaders to come forward with solutions.