Table 1: Union membership and union coverage, 12-months ending December, 2019 to 2023
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Change
2023-2022 2023-2019
Coverage (%)
All 11.6% 12.1% 11.6% 11.3% 11.2% −0.1 −0.4
Private sector 7.1% 7.2% 7.0% 6.8% 6.8% 0.1 −0.2
Public sector 37.2% 38.4% 37.6% 36.8% 36.0% −0.8 −1.2
Federal 30.5% 30.0% 29.1% 28.2% 29.0% 0.8 −1.4
State and local 38.7% 40.3% 39.5% 38.7% 37.6% −1.1 −1.0
State 32.3% 33.7% 33.1% 33.2% 32.0% −1.1 −0.3
Local 43.0% 45.1% 43.9% 42.7% 41.8% −0.9 −1.2
Membership (%)
All 10.3% 10.8% 10.3% 10.1% 10.0% −0.1 −0.3
Private sector 6.2% 6.3% 6.1% 6.0% 6.0% 0.0 −0.2
Public sector 33.6% 34.8% 33.9% 33.2% 32.5% −0.7 −1.1
Federal 25.6% 26.0% 24.9% 24.4% 25.1% 0.7 −0.5
State and local 35.3% 36.8% 35.9% 35.2% 34.2% −1.0 −1.1
State 29.4% 29.9% 29.6% 30.0% 28.6% −1.4 −0.8
Local 39.4% 41.8% 40.2% 38.8% 38.4% −0.5 −1.0
Coverage
All 16,375,000 15,936,000 15,795,000 15,996,000 16,186,000 190,000 −189,000
Private sector 8,562,000 8,021,000 8,050,000 8,164,000 8,424,000 260,000 −138,000
Public sector 7,813,000 7,915,000 7,745,000 7,832,000 7,763,000 −70,000 −50,000
Federal 1,156,000 1,165,000 1,109,000 1,123,000 1,193,000 71,000 37,000
State and local 6,657,000 6,750,000 6,637,000 6,710,000 6,569,000 −140,000 −88,000
State 2,249,000 2,347,000 2,272,000 2,373,000 2,375,000 2,000 127,000
Local 4,409,000 4,403,000 4,364,000 4,337,000 4,194,000 −142,000 −214,000
Membership
All 14,567,000 14,250,000 14,004,000 14,280,000 14,415,000 135,000 −151,000
Private sector 7,508,000 7,082,000 7,026,000 7,219,000 7,408,000 189,000 −100,000
Public sector 7,059,000 7,168,000 6,978,000 7,061,000 7,007,000 −54,000 −52,000
Federal 972,000 1,012,000 950,000 970,000 1,032,000 61,000 60,000
State and local 6,087,000 6,156,000 6,027,000 6,091,000 5,975,000 −115,000 −111,000
State 2,043,000 2,083,000 2,032,000 2,144,000 2,121,000 −23,000 78,000
Local 4,044,000 4,073,000 3,996,000 3,947,000 3,855,000 −92,000 −189,000
Total employment
All 141,766,000 132,205,000 136,421,000 141,698,000 144,567,000 2,869,000 2,801,000
Private sector 120,755,000 111,587,000 115,807,000 120,400,000 122,994,000 2,594,000 2,239,000
Public sector 21,011,000 20,618,000 20,613,000 21,298,000 21,573,000 275,000 562,000
Federal 3,792,000 3,888,000 3,814,000 3,982,000 4,109,000 127,000 317,000
State and local 17,219,000 16,730,000 16,799,000 17,317,000 17,464,000 148,000 245,000
State 6,956,000 6,975,000 6,862,000 7,156,000 7,419,000 263,000 463,000
Local 10,263,000 9,754,000 9,937,000 10,161,000 10,045,000 −115,000 −218,000
Sample size
All 154,727 133,671 134,177 129,714 125,755
Private sector 129,865 111,050 112,246 108,688 105,475
Public sector 24,862 22,621 21,931 21,026 20,280
Federal 4,812 4,703 4,478 4,367 4,224
State and local 20,050 17,918 17,453 16,659 16,056
State 8,652 7,969 7,681 7,389 7,314
Local 11,398 9,949 9,772 9,270 8,742
* Many estimates here and in the final published BLS report are subject to substantial sampling error due to small underlying sample sizes.
Note: Workers 16 and older; excludes self-employed and self-incorporated. Changes may not match exactly due to rounding.
Source: Economic Policy Institute. 2020. Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.47, https://microdata.epi.org.