Union membership dropped in 2019 to 14,574,000, down 170,000 (0.2%) from 2018, according to the latest annual report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Union members also dropped as a percentage of the workforce from 10.5% in 2018 to 10.3% in 2019. When the BLS began its current survey in 1983, 20.1% of American workers were in a union. The information comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey.
Union members as a percentage of the workforce
10.3%
- Public sector 33.6%
- Private sector 6.2%
Total union membership
14.6 million workers
- Private sector  7.5 million
- Public sector 7.1 million
Non-union workers earnings compared to union
81%
Where states rank, from most unionized to least
- #1 Hawaii 23.5%
- #2 New York 21.0%
- #3 Washington 18.8%
- #4 Rhode Island 17.4%
- #5 Alaska 17.1%
- #7 California 15.2%
- #10 Oregon 14.4%
- #43 Idaho 4.9%
- #50 South Carolina 2.7%
MORE: See the full report here.
