January 24, 2014
January 24, 2014 (Union Membership Byte)
By Janelle Jones and John Schmitt
The number of union members rose 162,000 in 2013, reflecting a drop of 118,000 in the public sector that was offset by a rise of 281,000 in the private sector. Expressed as a share of the workforce, the union membership rate was unchanged in 2013, at 11.3 percent.
In 2013, the share of public-sector workers who were in a union decreased by 0.6 percentage points, from 35.9 percent in 2012 to 35.3 percent in 2013. In the private sector, the unionization rate did not change significantly, increasing from 6.6 percent in 2012 to 6.7 percent in 2013.
