Bureau of Labor Statistics Releases 2010 Union Membership Stats
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor released its annual report of union membership in the United States. Overall, the rate of union membership was 11.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent in 2009. The total number of workers belonging to unions declined by 612,000 to 14.7 million. But union membership in the public sector remained stronger. The BLS summary includes these observations:
--The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.2 percent) was
substantially higher than the rate for private sector workers (6.9 percent).
(See table 3.)
--Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest
unionization rate at 37.1 percent. (See table 3.)
--Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian,
or Hispanic workers. (See table 1.)
--Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (24.2 percent)
and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.2 percent). (See table 5.)
You can read the rest of the BLS summary here, or the entirety of the BLS Report starting here.
