Table 4: Union membership and union coverage, January to October, 2019 to 2022
By selected characteristics
2019 2020 2021 2022 Change
2022-2021 2022-2019
Coverage (%)
All 11.6% 12.1% 11.6% 11.3% −0.3 −0.2
Gender Male 12.0% 12.4% 11.9% 11.6% −0.3 −0.4
Female 11.1% 11.9% 11.3% 11.0% −0.3 −0.1
Race/ethnicity White 12.0% 12.4% 12.0% 11.7% −0.3 −0.3
Black 12.3% 13.7% 12.9% 12.7% −0.2 0.3
Hispanic 9.9% 11.0% 10.4% 10.0% −0.4 0.1
Asian 10.6% 10.3% 9.3% 9.5% 0.2 −1.1
Other 11.1% 8.7% 8.4% 9.7% 1.4 −1.4
Age 16-24 5.3% 5.1% 5.3% 5.2% −0.1 −0.1
25-34 10.3% 11.3% 10.5% 10.0% −0.6 −0.3
35-44 13.0% 13.5% 12.9% 12.4% −0.5 −0.5
45-54 14.0% 14.8% 14.4% 14.1% −0.3 0.2
55-64 14.0% 14.5% 13.6% 13.5% −0.1 −0.6
65 & up 10.8% 10.0% 9.8% 10.9% 1.0 0.1
Membership (%)
All 10.3% 10.9% 10.3% 10.1% −0.2 −0.2
Gender Male 10.8% 11.1% 10.6% 10.5% −0.1 −0.3
Female 9.8% 10.6% 10.0% 9.6% −0.3 −0.1
Race/ethnicity White 10.8% 11.1% 10.7% 10.4% −0.3 −0.3
Black 11.0% 12.1% 11.7% 11.5% −0.2 0.5
Hispanic 8.6% 9.9% 9.0% 8.8% −0.3 0.2
Asian 9.4% 9.2% 7.9% 8.6% 0.6 −0.8
Other 9.9% 7.5% 7.8% 7.7% −0.1 −2.2
Age 16-24 4.5% 4.4% 4.3% 4.4% 0.1 −0.1
25-34 8.9% 10.0% 9.3% 8.8% −0.5 −0.1
35-44 11.7% 12.2% 11.5% 11.1% −0.4 −0.5
45-54 12.6% 13.3% 13.1% 12.7% −0.4 0.1
55-64 12.7% 13.0% 12.2% 12.2% 0.1 −0.5
65 & up 9.7% 8.7% 8.8% 9.5% 0.7 −0.2
Coverage
All 16,361,000 15,996,000 15,731,000 16,019,000 289,000 −342,000
Gender Male 8,815,000 8,475,000 8,353,000 8,542,000 189,000 −273,000
Female 7,546,000 7,521,000 7,377,000 7,477,000 100,000 −69,000
Race/ethnicity White 10,404,000 10,056,000 9,926,000 9,930,000 5,000 −473,000
Black 2,220,000 2,279,000 2,207,000 2,320,000 113,000 99,000
Hispanic 2,498,000 2,584,000 2,557,000 2,620,000 62,000 122,000
Asian 1,067,000 961,000 919,000 1,002,000 83,000 −65,000
Other 173,000 117,000 122,000 148,000 26,000 −25,000
Age 16-24 998,000 847,000 965,000 979,000 15,000 −18,000
25-34 3,461,000 3,536,000 3,383,000 3,288,000 −95,000 −172,000
35-44 3,865,000 3,829,000 3,756,000 3,848,000 92,000 −17,000
45-54 3,939,000 3,894,000 3,861,000 3,920,000 59,000 −19,000
55-64 3,255,000 3,164,000 3,025,000 3,121,000 95,000 −135,000
65 & up 843,000 726,000 740,000 863,000 123,000 20,000
Membership
All 14,589,000 14,308,000 13,981,000 14,298,000 317,000 −291,000
Gender Male 7,931,000 7,630,000 7,475,000 7,766,000 291,000 −164,000
Female 6,658,000 6,678,000 6,506,000 6,532,000 25,000 −126,000
Race/ethnicity White 9,338,000 9,015,000 8,857,000 8,861,000 4,000 −477,000
Black 1,980,000 2,006,000 1,994,000 2,105,000 111,000 125,000
Hispanic 2,171,000 2,324,000 2,229,000 2,307,000 77,000 136,000
Asian 946,000 862,000 787,000 907,000 120,000 −39,000
Other 154,000 101,000 114,000 118,000 4,000 −36,000
Age 16-24 851,000 723,000 768,000 830,000 61,000 −22,000
25-34 2,982,000 3,148,000 2,988,000 2,911,000 −78,000 −71,000
35-44 3,482,000 3,468,000 3,352,000 3,447,000 95,000 −36,000
45-54 3,557,000 3,492,000 3,511,000 3,523,000 12,000 −34,000
55-64 2,955,000 2,843,000 2,700,000 2,832,000 132,000 −123,000
65 & up 761,000 633,000 662,000 756,000 94,000 −5,000
Total employment
All 141,576,000 131,761,000 135,812,000 141,603,000 5,791,000 27,000
Gender Male 73,334,000 68,573,000 70,482,000 73,668,000 3,186,000 334,000
Female 68,242,000 63,187,000 65,329,000 67,934,000 2,605,000 −307,000
Race/ethnicity White 86,585,000 81,014,000 82,716,000 84,880,000 2,165,000 −1,705,000
Black 17,993,000 16,584,000 17,088,000 18,298,000 1,211,000 305,000
Hispanic 25,348,000 23,463,000 24,641,000 26,311,000 1,670,000 964,000
Asian 10,092,000 9,351,000 9,909,000 10,591,000 682,000 499,000
Other 1,558,000 1,349,000 1,458,000 1,522,000 64,000 −35,000
Age 16-24 18,920,000 16,612,000 18,060,000 18,845,000 785,000 −75,000
25-34 33,617,000 31,333,000 32,183,000 33,023,000 841,000 −593,000
35-44 29,832,000 28,427,000 29,118,000 30,921,000 1,804,000 1,089,000
45-54 28,204,000 26,282,000 26,731,000 27,732,000 1,001,000 −471,000
55-64 23,178,000 21,828,000 22,186,000 23,126,000 939,000 −52,000
65 & up 7,826,000 7,278,000 7,534,000 7,955,000 421,000 130,000
Sample size
All 128,763 110,659 112,513 108,792
Gender Male 65,475 56,503 57,502 55,665
Female 63,288 54,156 55,011 53,127
Race/ethnicity White 86,958 76,068 75,434 71,830
Black 12,947 10,871 11,497 11,142
Hispanic 18,715 15,110 16,431 16,496
Asian 8,474 7,279 7,740 7,965
Other 1,669 1,331 1,411 1,359
Age 16-24 15,669 12,488 13,567 12,996
25-34 28,316 23,725 24,760 23,867
35-44 27,484 24,098 24,522 24,001
45-54 26,224 22,718 22,516 21,566
55-64 22,875 20,233 19,737 18,992
65 & up 8,195 7,397 7,411 7,370
* Many estimates here and in the final published BLS report are subject to substantial sampling error due to small underlying sample sizes. These potential errors are, by definition, larger for less than full-year estimates.
** The race/ethnicity categories in this table are mutually exclusive (i.e., white non-Hispanic, Black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic any race). Data here will not match published BLS data because the BLS categories are not mutually exclusive.
Note: Workers 16 and older; excludes self-employed and self-incorporated. Changes may not match exactly due to rounding.
Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis of Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group Extracts, EPI Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.32 (2022), https://microdata.epi.org.