Thank you, Nate. Nate’s story reminds us again how much young workers are struggling in today’s economy.  Just last week we learned that about 1.7 million fewer teenagers and young adults were employed in July than a year before, hitting a record low of 51.4 percent.

Young workers are facing the worst kind of insecurity -- struggling to find good jobs and hold down debt while trying to grow into adulthood. In the survey we’re releasing today, we found that young workers are significantly less likely to have health care or economic security than they were 10 years ago. We owe them better.  Unless we change it, their economic standards are going to define a new norm—a norm of lower job and living standards.  The young workers of today are our country’s future, and we must commit to creating an economy that provides a strong economic future for all.

That’s why we commissioned a national survey of young workers, to learn more about their views and concerns, so that we can work with them and more effectively mobilize around their issues. The AFL-CIO did a similar survey 10 years ago and the changes are striking.

We’re calling the report “A Lost Decade” because we’re seeing 10 years of opportunity lost as young workers across the board are struggling to keep their heads above water and often not succeeding. They’ve put off adulthood - - put off having kids, put off education – and a full 34 percent of workers under 35 live with their parents for financial reasons.

Thirty-five percent are significantly less likely to have health care than older workers, only 31 percent make enough money to pay their bills while putting anything aside in savings, and almost half are more worried than hopeful about their economic future.

Yet young workers remain committed to a new vision to turn around America. They believe in public investment and the importance of creating an economy that works for working people. Jobs, health care, and education are the top three priorities of young workers. They believe in President Obama and his actions to turn around our economy.

And so, with their answers and their hope, we’re beginning to develop and create strategies to engage young people in the economic conversation. We’re going to reach out to young workers in an unprecedented way to push for an economy that works for young people and all working families.

The union movement has a unique role to play in educating and mobilizing young workers. One conclusion from the report that I found particularly striking was that young people want to be involved but they’re rarely asked. Their priorities are even more progressive than the priorities of the older generation of working people, yet they aren’t engaged by coworkers or friends to get involved in the economic debate.

Currently, 18 to 35 year olds make up a quarter of union membership. And at the AFL-CIO’s convention, we will ask convention delegates to approve plans for broad recruitment of young workers, as well as plans for training and leadership of young workers who are currently union members. 

We will also join young workers in pushing for an agenda that incorporates their priorities. health care reform that gives all Americans affordable, quality health care; an investment in infrastructure and the creation of family supporting green jobs; real limits on corporate greed and executive compensation to address young people’s mistrust of Wall Street; passage of the Employee Free Choice Act that gives young people the opportunity to bargain for a better future and create a sustainable economy; and increased support of public education and student loan reform to make higher education accessible and affordable to all Americans. 

And that’s just the beginning of a broad push towards talking and mobilizing young workers in the coming months and years.