Volume 6, No.4
Winter 2000

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Union Membership in 2000:
Numbers Decline During Record Economic Expansion

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Union Membership in 2000:
Numbers Decline During Record Economic Expansion
By: Rich Reinhold

Union membership in the U.S. decreased in 2000 even as the national economy continued to grow and the unemployment rate reached 30-year lows. Despite the recent good economic times, the union membership levels were lower in 2000 then they were during the recession of the early 1990s, suggesting that most of the jobs created during the economic expansion were non-union. In the past ten years, the number of employed workers in unions fell by about 482,000, while the percentage of employed workers in unions dropped from 16 percent to 13.5 percent (see table below).

The industry sector with the highest level and rate of union membership in 2000 was Government (37.5 percent). Within total Government, Local Government had the largest number of union members and the highest rate of unionization, with the bulk employed in local police and fire departments. Government union membership has risen by over 1.3 million or 24 percent since 1983.

The private sector, by comparison, had nine percent of its workers in unions in 2000. The unionization rate in the private sector was relatively stable for the past decade, dropping to 12 percent in 1990, but it is now nearly half the rate of the early 1980s. Nearly one out of four workers in the Transportation-Public Utilities industry was a union member and about 20 percent of all Construction workers were unionized. Manufacturing had about 17 percent of all union members and about one third of all union members in the private sector. But in just the previous four years, union membership in Manufacturing has decreased by over 500,000.

Protective Services Workers Have Highest Percentage of Union Workers

The occupations with the highest percentage of union membership were Protective Services, including local police and fire fighting workers (39 percent) and Transportation and Material Moving occupations (23 percent). Sales and Farming-Forestry-Fishery occupations each had unionization rates of less than five percent. The vast majority of union members were those employed as full-time workers; only seven percent of part-time employees belonged to unions.

Men, especially those ages 45 and older, had the highest rates of union membership. Blacks had a higher rate of union membership (17 percent) as compared to Whites (13 percent) and Hispanics (11 percent). Within race/gender categories, one out of five Black men employed was a member of a union and about 10 percent of Hispanic women were in unions.

Union versus Non-Union Job Earnings Differential Largest for Women, Racial Minorities

Across all industries, the average weekly earnings for union members were 28 percent higher than for those employed in non-union jobs. The gap between union and non-union earnings was largest for Hispanics and Blacks. The earnings for Hispanics in unionized jobs were 55 percent higher than Hispanics in non-union positions. Black workers in unions earned nearly 40 percent more than Blacks in non-union jobs. The earnings for Women in unionized positions were nearly one-third higher than for Women in non-union jobs.

Workers employed in unionized Service and Farming-Forestry-Fishery occupations reported earnings that were 69 percent and 59 percent higher, respectively, than their non-union counterparts. There was virtually no difference in the earnings of union and non-union workers employed in Managerial/Professional Specialty occupations.

Illinois Union Membership Grows Modestly in 2000 but Downward Trend Continues

The percent of people employed in Illinois who belonged to unions grew slightly to 18.6 percent in 2000 but was still lower than just five years earlier when membership was at 20.2 percent (see table). As of 2000, Illinois had the third largest number of union members and the 6th highest unionization rate among all states. However, there has been a downward trend in Illinois union membership since the early 1980s, when nearly one out of four employed workers were in unions. The actual number of union members in Illinois was about the same in 2000 as it was in 1983 but the unionization rate in 2000 was nearly six percent lower than in 1983.

Data included in this article were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA). The full BLS report on union members in 2000 may be obtained at http://stats.bls.gov/newrels.htm. The BNA Web site address is http://www.bna.com.