U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
January 24, 2006
In 2005, workers in the public sector had a union membership rate much higher than that of private-sector employees.
The unionization rate for government workers was 36.5 percent in 2005, while the rate for private industry workers was 7.8 percent.
Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate (41.9 percent). This group includes several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and fire fighters.
Among major private industries, transportation and utilities had the highest union membership rate, at 24.0 percent. Information industries (13.6 percent), construction (13.1 percent), and manufacturing (13.0 percent) also had higher-than-average rates.
These data are from the Current Population Survey. To learn more about workers represented by unions, see Union Members in 2005 (PDF) (TXT), USDL news release 06-99.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Editor's Desk, Union membership by industry, 2005 on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2006/jan/wk4/art02.htm (visited May 24, 2013).
This edition of Spotlight on Statistics examines labor productivity trends from 2000 through 2010 for selected industries and sectors within the nonfarm business sector of the U.S. economy. Read more »
