Despite Faltering Economy, Unions Were Able to Add Members Last Year   Unions were on the run during most of the Bush years, making small or no gains in membership despite increased organizing activities. 

Then, the economy began a sharp decline last year. Against those odds, union membership increased significantly in 2008, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) annual report released in January.

The unionized share of the U.S. workforce climbed to 12.4 percent last year from 12.1 percent in 2007, an addition to union rolls of 428,000 members.

While the gains were broadly shared across demographic lines and occupations, growth was strongest in the public sector, among Hispanics, and in Western states, driving the largest membership increase in more than a quarter of a century.

The bulk of the overall membership rise in 2008 originated in public sector unions, which added members faster than government employment expanded. Public sector unionization last year grew to 36.8 percent from 35.9 percent in 2007. This increase of about 275,000 members came largely through gains in local and state government, where unionization in 2008 reached 42.2 percent and 31.6 percent, respectively. 

Even Private Sector Gains

While overall employment in the private sector shrank in 2008, few major industries or occupations saw unionization rates decline. Small drops in unionization in financial and business services and in mining were more than offset by membership gains in education, health, and hospitality services. As a result, private-sector unionization rose from 7.5 percent in 2007 to 7.6 percent in 2008.

Since the late 1970s, unions have consistently represented more than one-third of the public-sector workforce, but over the same period private-sector union membership has been falling sharply: about one•in-five private sector workers were union members in the late 1970s, compared to about one-in-thirteen in 2008.

Union membership in manufacturing remained essentially unchanged at 11.4 percent in 2008, compared to 11.3 percent in 2007. Once considered the bulwark of the labor movement, manufac•turing workers are now less likely than workers in the rest of the economy to be a union member. A “union job” in the private sector today is most likely to be in transportation and utilities (22.2 percent) or telecommunications (19.3 percent).

More Hispanics Join

More than 120,000 Hispanics became union members in 2008, with their membership rate rising to 10.6 percent from 9.8 percent in 2007. Membership among African-Americans increased from 14.3 percent to 14.5 percent. Among whites, unionization rose from 11.8 percent to 12.2 percent. The overall female and male membership rates rose by less than half a percentage point each, to 11.4 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively.

Unionization also increased in mid-western states, from 13.8 percent to 14.3 percent, yet failed to match the rapid pace of expansion in the West, where unionization grew from 14.7 percent to 15.7 percent. Since 2006, unionization has surged in Western states. California alone added about 266,000 union members last year, raising its unionization rate to 18.4 percent from 16.7 percent in 2007. Over the last three years, union membership in the South has remained at 5.9 percent, less than half of the national average. 

The membership gains in 2008 stand out even more because they occurred while the economy was contracting. The gain of 428,000 is the largest on record since 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available. Except for last year’s increase and a small uptick in 2007, union membership has otherwise fallen or stagnated annually from 20.1 percent in 1983.

Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (24.9 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.5 percent). 

Demographic Characteristics

The union membership rate remained higher for men (13.4 percent) than for women (11.4 percent), but the gap has strongest in the public sector, among Hispanics, and in Western states, driving the largest membership increase in more than a quarter of a century. narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women.

In 2008, black workers were more likely to be union members (14.5 percent) than workers who were white (12.2 percent), Asian (10.6 percent), or Hispanic (10.6 percent).  Black men had the highest union membership rate (15.9 percent), while Asian men had the lowest rate (9.6 percent). 

By age, union membership rates were highest among workers 55 to 64 years old (16.6 percent) and 45 to 54 years old (16.0 percent).  The lowest union mem•bership rates occurred among those age 16 to 24 (5.0 percent).  Full-time workers were about twice as likely as part-time workers to be union members, 13.7 compared with 6.7 percent. 

Pay Advantage Continues

In 2008, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median weekly earnings of $886 while those who were not represented by unions had median weekly earnings of $691.  In 2008, 29 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 12.4 percent, while 20 states had higher rates, and 1 state had the same rate. Three states had union membership rates over 20 percent in 2008—New York (24.9 percent), Hawaii (24.3 percent), and Alaska (23.5 percent). The largest number of union members lived in California (2.7 million) followed by New York (2.0 million).  Other union dense states were Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.