2006 Union Members — 2007-01-25

In 2006, 12.0 percent of employed wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.5 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of persons belonging to a union fell by 326,000 in 2006 to 15.4 million. The union membership rate has steadily declined from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available. Some highlights from the 2006 data are: --Workers in the public sector had a union membership rate nearly five times that of private sector employees. --Education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rate among all occupations, at 37 percent. --Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic workers. The union membership rate for government workers (36.2 percent) was substantially higher than for private industry workers (7.4 percent). Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 41.9 percent.