New statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show union membership nationally is now at 10.1%, down slightly from the 10.3% recorded in 2021. The decline of unionized labor has been a long time coming: in 1954 nearly 35% of the country’s labor force was unionized. That number dropped to 20% by 1983 and has been nearly cut in half since then. The BLS report, Union Members—2022, additionally notes that a higher 33.1% of workers in public sector employment are unionized; with the largest rate of unionization, at 34.6%, seen in protective service occupations, followed closely by the 33.7% who are organized in the education and library professions. More men than women are labor union members, by a 10.5% to 9.6% margin. But, according to the BLS, this gap has been steadily narrowing in recent decades. In 1983, 24.7% of men and 14.6% of women were unionized. In terms of earnings, the BLS report shows that unionized employees on average earned $1, 216 per week last year, compared with the $1,029 average per week wage earned by non-union workers. Unionized workers in the construction industry are now at 11.7%, a decline from the 12.6% recorded in 2021. In 1973, roughly 39% of construction industry workers belonged to a union. The latest figures, not surprisingly, vary from state to state. Exactly 6.2% of workers in Arizona were unionized last year; Colorado came in at 7.5%; while New Mexico recorded a rate of 10.6%. The state with the highest union membership in 2022 was Hawaii at 23.4%; the lowest: South Carolina at 2.0%. By Garry Boulard
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