1996 Union Members — 1997-01-31

Union membership as a percent of wage and salary employment continued to decline in 1996, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Union members accounted for 14.5 percent of wage and salary employment in 1996, down from 14.9 percent in 1995. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available, union members made up 20.1 percent of wage and salary workers. In 1996, as wage and salary employment continued to rise, the number who were members of unions totaled 16.3 million, little changed from the prior year. Nearly three-fifths of union members (9.4 million) were in private industry, where they constituted 10.2 percent of wage and salary employment. There were 6.9 million union members in government (federal, state, and local), where they accounted for 37.7 percent of wage and salary employment. Among private industry groups, transportation and public utilities had the highest proportion of workers who were union members (27 percent).