Although labor unions have recently won headlines due to several high-profile job actions in different industries, overall membership was once more down in 2023, according to figures just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those figures show that nationally exactly 10% of the country’s workforce was unionized in 2023, a slight decrease from where things stood in 2022 when the number came in at 10.1%.
While that percentage represents a workforce total of just over 14.1 million people, it is still a significant drop from 1979 when just under 21 million people were part of a union.
As a percentage of the nation’s workforce, the union membership peaked at 35.1% in 1955 and has been slowly declining ever since.
According to the BLS survey, the highest rate of union membership, at 32.5%, was seen last year among public sector workers. “The highest unionization rates were among workers in education, training, and library occupations,” notes the survey, adding that some 31.9% of protective service occupations are now also unionized.
Men represent a slightly higher union membership rate at 10.5% than woman at 9.5%, while 12.6% of those aged 45 to 54 years of age made up the largest age specific union category.
The smallest membership was seen in the category of workers aged 16 to 24 years old, at 4.4%.
Statewise, Hawaii had the largest share of unionized workers at 21.9%; followed by New York at 20.7%, and the state of Washington at 18%. Lowest states: South Carolina at 1.7%, North Carolina at 2.8%, and South Dakota at 3.1%.
In the West, union membership was highest in Nevada at 11.3%. New Mexico saw a union membership of 8.8%, while Colorado and Arizona had a 6.7% and 5.5% union membership respectively.
Despite the generally low union membership rates nationally, organized labor chalked up several significant victories last year. Around 60,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists walked off the job in July, before increased wage and percentage of streaming revenue for performers agreements were reached two months later.
In November members of the United Auto Workers returned to work after a six-week strike, securing an increase in both wages and cost of living adjustments.
In a web posting, Sean Redmond, vice president for labor policy with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the current 10% unionized labor force represents the “lowest percentage on record,” and added that with “perhaps only one more year left in the Biden administration, what will happen is anyone’s guess, there’s not much time left for it to continue tilting the field for organized labor.”
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, noted, however, that despite the historic lower percentage of workers in unions, recent public opinion surveys show that “71% of Americans support unions, the highest level in nearly 60 years, with 88% of young people showing support for unions.”
Shuler added that she expected to see more labor representation in federal infrastructure-related jobs, as well as in both the clean energy and technology sectors.
By Garry Boulard
