Table 1: Union membership and union coverage, 12-months ending October, 2018 to 2023
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Change
2023-2022 2023-2019
Coverage (%)
All 11.5% 12.0% 11.6% 11.4% 11.2% −0.2 −0.3
Private sector 7.1% 7.2% 6.9% 6.8% 6.9% 0.1 −0.2
Public sector 37.0% 38.2% 37.6% 37.3% 35.9% −1.4 −1.1
Federal 30.6% 29.9% 28.9% 28.9% 28.6% −0.3 −2.0
State and local 38.4% 40.2% 39.6% 39.3% 37.6% −1.6 −0.8
State 32.1% 33.5% 32.9% 34.3% 31.4% −2.9 −0.7
Local 42.7% 44.9% 44.2% 42.7% 42.2% −0.5 −0.5
Membership (%)
All 10.3% 10.7% 10.3% 10.1% 10.0% −0.1 −0.3
Private sector 6.3% 6.3% 6.1% 6.0% 6.1% 0.1 −0.2
Public sector 33.5% 34.6% 33.9% 33.6% 32.5% −1.1 −1.1
Federal 25.8% 25.9% 24.9% 25.1% 24.8% −0.3 −1.0
State and local 35.2% 36.6% 36.0% 35.5% 34.2% −1.3 −1.0
State 29.2% 29.7% 29.3% 31.1% 28.0% −3.0 −1.2
Local 39.3% 41.4% 40.7% 38.7% 38.8% 0.1 −0.5
Coverage
All 16,313,000 16,071,000 15,714,000 16,036,000 16,125,000 89,000 −188,000
Private sector 8,549,000 8,124,000 7,968,000 8,143,000 8,409,000 266,000 −140,000
Public sector 7,764,000 7,947,000 7,747,000 7,893,000 7,716,000 −177,000 −48,000
Federal 1,149,000 1,152,000 1,119,000 1,147,000 1,152,000 5,000 4,000
State and local 6,616,000 6,795,000 6,627,000 6,746,000 6,564,000 −182,000 −52,000
State 2,242,000 2,345,000 2,253,000 2,435,000 2,317,000 −118,000 75,000
Local 4,374,000 4,449,000 4,374,000 4,312,000 4,248,000 −64,000 −126,000
Membership
All 14,568,000 14,333,000 13,978,000 14,267,000 14,407,000 139,000 −161,000
Private sector 7,535,000 7,150,000 6,986,000 7,164,000 7,434,000 270,000 −101,000
Public sector 7,033,000 7,183,000 6,992,000 7,103,000 6,973,000 −130,000 −60,000
Federal 969,000 997,000 964,000 997,000 1,001,000 4,000 32,000
State and local 6,064,000 6,186,000 6,028,000 6,106,000 5,972,000 −134,000 −91,000
State 2,038,000 2,080,000 2,008,000 2,203,000 2,068,000 −135,000 30,000
Local 4,026,000 4,106,000 4,020,000 3,904,000 3,904,000 1,000 −122,000
Total employment
All 141,456,000 133,587,000 135,581,000 141,247,000 144,115,000 2,869,000 2,659,000
Private sector 120,481,000 112,811,000 114,976,000 120,095,000 122,642,000 2,547,000 2,161,000
Public sector 20,975,000 20,776,000 20,605,000 21,152,000 21,473,000 322,000 498,000
Federal 3,752,000 3,855,000 3,871,000 3,966,000 4,027,000 61,000 275,000
State and local 17,223,000 16,920,000 16,734,000 17,185,000 17,446,000 261,000 224,000
State 6,978,000 7,010,000 6,849,000 7,090,000 7,377,000 287,000 398,000
Local 10,244,000 9,911,000 9,885,000 10,096,000 10,070,000 −26,000 −175,000
Sample size
All 155,434 136,623 135,525 130,456 125,509
Private sector 130,453 113,585 113,271 109,326 105,339
Public sector 24,981 23,038 22,254 21,130 20,170
Federal 4,813 4,695 4,612 4,391 4,166
State and local 20,168 18,343 17,642 16,739 16,004
State 8,739 8,094 7,761 7,453 7,249
Local 11,429 10,249 9,881 9,286 8,755
* 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 1.0.45, https://microdata.epi.org.