NEW DATA SUGGESTS SHIFT IN UNION ENROLLMENT

New data shows union represented public sector workers now outnumber union private sector employees





WORKING FOR UNCLE SAM

Washington, D.C.--  In a New York Times article published on Januay 23, writer Steven Greenhouse reports that union government workers are now outnumbering private sector union employees.

With the loss of jobs in automaking and construction, the private sector lost union members, while government increased its organized members.

In the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual report on union membership which was published on January 22, the bureau undercut the longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar factory workers. Read the report here. 

It found that membership fell so fast in the private sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008.

According to the labor bureau, 7.2 percent of private-sector workers were union members last year, down from 7.6 percent the previous year. That, labor historians said, was the lowest percentage of private-sector workers in unions since 1900.  Among government workers, union membership grew to 37.4 percent last year, from 36.8 percent in 2008.

Some highlights from the 2009 data are:

*More public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), despite there being 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

*Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate at 38.1 percent.

*Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic workers.

*Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (25.2 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.1 percent).

To find out more about this subject, please click here to read the NYT article.  To read a copy of the Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary, click here.