DENVER (AP) – Hillary Rodham Clinton is encouraging companies to train and hire young people, offering a new jobs pitch during her family’s annual domestic policy summit as she considers another presidential campaign.
The former secretary of state was launching a project called “Job One” at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting Tuesday, featuring hiring, training and mentoring initiatives from 10 companies, including The Gap, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and Marriott.
Clinton planned to address economic growth and youth employment during the meeting and was unveiling partnerships aimed at helping people age 16-24 who are out of school and unemployed. Students preparing for the workforce in the aftermath of the recession have faced persistently high unemployment levels at rates about twice the national average.
“Many Americans are still feeling that they have not recovered from the Great Recession. They are still worried about their future, the future of their children,” Clinton said in an interview last week with Fox News, pointing to culprits like student debt, stagnant wages and income inequality. “They look and they say, ‘What happened to the American dream?'”
Clinton is in the middle of a book tour for her new memoir, “Hard Choices,” about her four years at the State Department under President Barack Obama, but interviews surrounding it have brought attention to her own economic circumstances.