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Tags: unions | labor | bureau of labor statistics

America's Unionized Worker Percentages Fall to New Low

Union graphic
Union graphic (ibreakstock/Dreamstime.com)

By    |   Thursday, 19 January 2023 01:54 PM EST

The total number of America's unionized workers went up in 2022, but the overall percentage of workers who belong to a union fell to a new low in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Last year, 10.1% of America's workers were unionized, dropping from 10.3% in 2021, reports Axios. Meanwhile, in 1983, the first year the Bureau reported comparable figures, there was a high number of workers, at 20.1%.

The percentages fell, in part because of the increase in jobs in 2022. The nation's workforce added 273,000 unionized jobs last year, up 1.9% from 2021, but the overall number of total jobs went up by 3.9% to 5.3 million, which was past the growth in union jobs.

The news comes as unionization efforts have come in several of the nation's largest companies, including for Starbucks locations and Amazon's warehouses, with both companies pushing back against the organizing efforts with the argument that workers would be better served without belonging to unions.

However, a recent Gallup Poll shows that 71% of Americans approved of labor unions last year, the highest numbers recorded by the pollsters since 1965.

Meanwhile, the rate of union membership in public-sector workers is much higher than that of employees in the private sector, by 33.1% to 6%, and union workers, on average, are paid more, earning a median salary of $1,216 a week compared to $1,029 for nonunion workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In other findings in the report:

  • The highest unionization rates with workers in protective service occupations, at 34.6%, and those working in education, training, and library occupations, at 33.7%.
  • Men had a higher union membership rate, at 10.5%, women came in at 9.6%. However, those numbers have narrowed since 1983, when the rates were 24.7% for men and 14.6% for women.
  • Black workers are still more likely to belong to unions than white, Asian, or Hispanic workers.
  • Hawaii and New York had the highest union membership rates, at 21.9 % and 20.7%, respectively, with the lowest rates in South Carolina, at 1.7% and North Carolina, at 2.8%.

The information on union membership was collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households. It obtains data on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population of people ages 16 and older.

Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

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The total number of America's unionized workers went up in 2022, but the overall percentage of workers who belong to a union fell to a new low in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
unions, labor, bureau of labor statistics
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2023-54-19
Thursday, 19 January 2023 01:54 PM
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