1994 Union Members — 1995-02-08

About 16.7 million wage and salary employees, 15.5 percent of total employment, were union members in 1994, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. There were 9.6 million members in private industry, where they accounted for 10.9 percent of employment, and 7.1 million in government (federal, state, and local), where they constituted 38.7 percent of employment. Data in this release are from the 1994 Current Population Survey (CPS) and are not directly comparable with those for prior years because a number of changes were introduced into the CPS beginning with data for January 1994. (See technical note.) Among private industry groups, manufacturing had the largest number of union members --3.5 million, including 2.2 million members employed in the manufacture of durable goods. (See tables 1 and 2.) Manufacturing membership was followed by transportation and public utilities (1.8 million), services (1.7 million), wholesale and retail trade (1.4 million), and construction (900,000).