Union Membership Tumbles

Manufacturing Engineering, Mar 2007

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of people belonging to unions fell by 326,000 in 2006 to 15.4 million. Union members constitute 12% of employed wage and salary workers, down from 12.5% in 2005. Union membership rate has steadily declined from 20.1% in 1983.

Only 12.5% of manufacturing workers are members of unions, down from 13.7% in 2005. Membership rates for government workers stood at 36%, nearly five times that of private sector employees at 7.4%.

Education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rates among all occupations at 37%.

Full-time wage and salary workers who were union members had median weekly earnings of $833, compared to $642 for comparable workers not represented by unions.

All states in the East, North Central, Middle Atlantic,and Pacific reported union membership rates above the national average. States with the highest union membership rates were Hawaii at 24.7%, New York at 24.4 %, Alaska at 22.2 %, and New Jersey at 20.1%. The largest number of union members live in California (2.3 million) and New York (2 million).

States in the East South Central and West South Central had rates below the national average. North Carolina and South Carolina reported the lowest union membership rates of 3.3% followed by Virginia at 4%, Georgia at 4.4%, and Texas at 4.9%.