While 12.4 percent of workers in the United States belong to a union, only 5 percent of individuals between 16 to 24 years carry union cards.

Liz Shuler, the new secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO union federation, wants to change that.

Speaking at A Better Deal conference—an event hosted  by the nonpartisan policy group Demos and held in Washington D.C. today—Shuler said that the future of labor will be tied to its ability to recruit young workers.

The AFL-CIO official, a former labor organizer from Oregon, has been on the job for just 30 days.

“We know that our work is not done,” Shuler said. “We're going to be pushing for more and more investment, and I think training will be a key to that.”

Other reforms like the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that is currently moving through Congress, will also be key to making it easier for young people to organize in their workplaces, according to Shuler.

A recent survey released by the AFL-CIO in September showed devastating changes in economic prosperity for people younger than 35 since 1999:

The report, entitled “Young Workers: A Lost Decade,” stands in stark contrast to the AFL’s last youth-oriented study published in 1999. In the halcyon afterglow of the roaring ‘90s, more than three-quarters of young workers felt hopeful about their financial futures at the time. Today, that number has plummeted 22 percentage points. The material circumstances of young workers have markedly declined, too. At present, 24 percent of young people make less than they need to cover their monthly bills, a 14-point increase from the 1999 study, and nearly one-third of young workers are uninsured, up 7 points from 1999. The stats are worse for women, people of color, and the poor.

 The conference is being sponsored by a number of nonpartisan policy groups, including CampusProgress.