Table 3: Union membership and union coverage, 12-months ending December, 2019 to 2023
State and local government
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Change
2023-2022 2023-2019
Coverage (%)
State and local government 38.7% 40.3% 39.5% 38.7% 37.6% −1.1 −1.0
Education 43.1% 45.7% 44.8% 43.8% 42.7% −1.1 −0.4
K-12, Teachers 58.6% 62.6% 61.1% 59.0% 58.4% −0.6 −0.2
K-12, Non-teachers 37.9% 38.9% 37.9% 38.0% 36.6% −1.4 −1.3
Not K-12 20.9% 23.2% 23.5% 22.3% 20.6% −1.7 −0.3
Non-education 33.9% 35.0% 34.2% 33.8% 32.7% −1.0 −1.2
Membership (%)
State and local government 35.3% 36.8% 35.9% 35.2% 34.2% −1.0 −1.1
Education 38.9% 41.3% 40.0% 39.3% 38.3% −1.0 −0.6
K-12, Teachers 53.5% 57.1% 55.4% 54.1% 53.0% −1.1 −0.5
K-12, Non-teachers 33.8% 34.9% 33.5% 33.1% 32.5% −0.5 −1.2
Not K-12 18.5% 20.1% 20.1% 19.5% 17.9% −1.6 −0.6
Non-education 31.5% 32.3% 31.7% 31.1% 30.3% −0.8 −1.2
Coverage
State and local government 6,657,000 6,750,000 6,637,000 6,710,000 6,569,000 −140,000 −88,000
Education 3,834,000 3,836,000 3,793,000 3,768,000 3,661,000 −107,000 −173,000
K-12, Teachers 2,269,000 2,292,000 2,206,000 2,188,000 2,157,000 −31,000 −112,000
K-12, Non-teachers 1,148,000 1,105,000 1,167,000 1,179,000 1,135,000 −44,000 −13,000
Not K-12 417,000 439,000 419,000 401,000 369,000 −32,000 −48,000
Non-education 2,823,000 2,914,000 2,844,000 2,941,000 2,908,000 −33,000 85,000
Membership
State and local government 6,087,000 6,156,000 6,027,000 6,091,000 5,975,000 −115,000 −111,000
Education 3,464,000 3,465,000 3,388,000 3,383,000 3,287,000 −96,000 −177,000
K-12, Teachers 2,072,000 2,092,000 1,999,000 2,007,000 1,959,000 −48,000 −113,000
K-12, Non-teachers 1,024,000 993,000 1,030,000 1,026,000 1,009,000 −17,000 −15,000
Not K-12 368,000 381,000 358,000 350,000 319,000 −31,000 −49,000
Non-education 2,623,000 2,690,000 2,639,000 2,708,000 2,688,000 −20,000 65,000
Total employment
State and local government 17,219,000 16,730,000 16,799,000 17,317,000 17,464,000 148,000 245,000
Education 8,896,000 8,399,000 8,474,000 8,609,000 8,583,000 −26,000 −313,000
K-12, Teachers 3,874,000 3,662,000 3,611,000 3,711,000 3,696,000 −15,000 −178,000
K-12, Non-teachers 3,031,000 2,844,000 3,077,000 3,100,000 3,099,000 −1,000 68,000
Not K-12 1,991,000 1,894,000 1,786,000 1,798,000 1,788,000 −10,000 −204,000
Non-education 8,323,000 8,331,000 8,325,000 8,708,000 8,881,000 174,000 558,000
Sample size
State and local government 20,050 17,918 17,453 16,659 16,056
Education 10,360 9,053 8,812 8,364 7,957
K-12, Teachers 4,528 3,899 3,700 3,547 3,355
K-12, Non-teachers 3,590 3,133 3,225 3,065 2,906
Not K-12 2,242 2,021 1,887 1,752 1,696
Non-education 9,690 8,865 8,641 8,295 8,099
* 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.
Economic Policy Institute. 2020. Current Population Survey Extracts, Version 1.0.47, https://microdata.epi.org.