In 2007, "U.S. unions increased their share of membership among workers" for the "first time in the past quarter of a century," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual union membership report. The number of workers belonging to a union rose by 311,000 to 15.7 million, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent. Some highlights from the 2007 data are:
The largest increase in union membership was in health services, where unions added 142,000 members, a 0.9 percent increase from 2006 to 7.9 percent.
In the private sector, union membership grew by 133,000, and union density grew to 7.5 percent in 2007, the first time private-sector density grew since 1979. In construction alone, more than 96,000 members were added last year, bumping the union membership rate in that industry to 13.9 percent, up from 13 percent in 2006.
Workers in the public sector had a union membership rate nearly five times that of private sector employees.
Education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate among all occupations, at 37.2 percent, followed closely by protective service occupations at 35.2 percent.
Wage and salary workers ages 45 to 54 (15.7 percent) and ages 55 to 64 (16.1 percent) were more likely to be union members than were workers ages 16 to 24 (4.8 percent).
Membership by Industry and Occupation
The union membership rate for public sector workers (35.9 percent) was substantially higher than for private industry workers (7.5 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 41.8 percent. This group includes many workers in several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters. Private sector industries with high unionization rates include transportation and utilities (22.1 percent), telecommunications (19.7 per-cent), and construction (13.9 percent). In 2007, unionization rates were relatively low in agriculture and related industries (1.5 percent) and in financial activities (2.0 percent).
Among occupational groups, education, training, and library occupations (37.2 percent) and protective service occupations (35.2 percent) had the highest unionization rates in 2007. Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations (2.7 percent) and sales and related occupations (3.3 percent) had the lowest unionization rates.
Demographic Characteristics of Union Members
In 2007, the union membership rate was higher for men (13.0 percent) than for women (11.1 percent). The gap between their rates has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women. The rates for both men and women declined between 1983 and 2007, but the rate for men declined much more rapidly.
Black workers were more likely to be union members (14.3 percent) than were whites (11.8 percent), Asians (10.9 percent), or Hispanics (9.8 percent). Within these major groups, black men had the highest union membership rate (15.8 percent) while Hispanic women had the lowest rate (9.6 percent).
Among age groups, union membership rates were highest among workers 55 to 64 years old (16.1 percent) and 45 to 54 years old (15.7 percent). The lowest union membership rates occurred among those ages 16 to 24 (4.8 percent). Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members, 13.2 compared with 6.5 percent.
Union Representation of Nonmembers
About 1.6 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union, on their main job in 2007, while not being union members themselves. Slightly more than half of these workers were employed in government.
Earnings
In 2007, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median weekly earnings of $863. Those who were not represented by unions, had median weekly earnings of $663. The difference reflects a variety of influences, including variations in the distributions of union members and nonunion employees by occupation, industry, firm size, or geographic region.
Union Membership by State
In 2007, 30 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below the U.S. average (12.1 percent), and 20 states had higher rates. All states in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions reported union membership rates above the national average. All states in the East South Central and West South Central divisions had rates below it. Union membership rates were down, from those of 2006 in 27 states, up in 20 states, and unchanged in 3 states and the District of Columbia.
Among the five states reporting union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2007, North Carolina posted the lowest rate (3.0 percent). The next lowest rates were recorded in Virginia (3.7 percent), South Carolina (4.1 percent), Georgia (4.4 percent), and Texas (4.7 percent). Four states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2007--New York (25.2 percent), Alaska (23.8 percent), Hawaii (23.4 percent), and Washington (20.2 percent).
The largest numbers of union members lived in California (2.5 million) and New York (2.1 million). Nearly half (7.8 million) of the 15.7 million union members in the U.S., lived in 6 states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 2.1 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Michigan, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.8 million; and New Jersey, 0.7 million). These states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.
State union membership levels depend on both the employment level and union membership rate. Texas had less than one-quarter as many union members as New York, despite having over 1.7 million more wage and salary employees. Similarly, Tennessee and Hawaii had comparable numbers of union members even though Tennessee’s wage and salary employment level was more than four and one-half times that of Hawaii.
