In 2006, 12.0 percent of employed wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.5 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The union membership rate has steadily declined from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable data are available.
The union membership rate was higher for men (13.0 percent) than for women (10.9 percent) in 2006. The gap between their rates has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was about 10 percentage points higher than the rate for women. This narrowing occurred because the union membership rate for men declined more rapidly than the rate for women over the period.
Black workers were more likely to be union members (14.5 percent) than were whites (11.7 percent), Asians (10.4 percent) or Hispanics (9.8 percent).
This 2006 data on union membership is from the Current Population Survey. Unionization data is for wage and salary workers. Find out more in "Union Members in 2006," news release USDL 07-0113.
