Union Membership in US

The union membership rate, the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions, was 11.1 percent in 2015, unchanged from 2014, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Workers in protective service occupations and in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionization rates at 36.3 percent and 35.5 percent, respectively.

Private sector union membership rate, 24.2% in 1973, 6.6%: in 2014. Public sector rose sharply in the 1970s and has been relatively steady since 1980 at around 35 percent, more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers.

Overall union membership has fallen by about a half since 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Big Government, Small Government

Many discuss the size of big government, but most do not realize that the local governments are much larger than the federal government. During the past year, state and local employment has been reduced, mostly through not filling vacancies, by 258,000, or 1.3%, to 19.2 million workers, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compensation for government workers accounts for half of the $2 trillion spent annually by governments. For workers who remain, compensation increased 2.5% compared with 0.8% for private-sector workers for the year ended June 30, 2010.

The federal workforce, meanwhile, grew 3.4% to 2.2 million during the past year and promises to keep growing.   The worst part of having this many federal and state workers, is that when they retire, we get to pay for them for the rest of their (and our) lives.

Unions

Seems unions are suffering based on labor figures by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall unionization rate in the US was 12.1 percent, down from 12.4 percent the previous year.

The private sector, for the first time ever, employed fewer union members than the public sector. The number of union workers employed in the private sector fell from approximately 7.91 million in 2008 to 7.19 million in 2009, while the number of public-sector union workers dropped from 7.86 million to 7.76 million.

In California, the highest unionized state, unionization rates were down across a range of groupings, with the most significant losses in:

    * Transportation and utilities fell from 41.7 percent to 36.4 percent
    * Public administration fell from 58.1 percent to 52.1 percent

US Employment Numbers

Much talk lately about jobs saved, jobs created, company hiring, etc., but there is one number that is without politics. How many people actually have jobs is answered below. Does not show how many have entered the workforce since 2004, but are currently unemployed. Three tenths of one percent increase since last year.

Employed Americans per US Bureau of Labor Statistics (not seasonally adjusted)
Jun 2004 - 139,861,000
Jun 2007 - 153,072,000
Aug 2008 - 154,853,000
jul 2009    - 139,817,000
jul 2010    - 139,860,000
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US Employment Data

From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (not seasonally adjusted):
Jan 2008 -   144,607,000
Jan 2009 -   140,436,000
June 2010 - 139,882,000

We have to go back to June, 2004 to find a like number to today, 139,861,000. These numbers do not reflect the number of people added to the potential work force during the past six years.