Charted: American Jobs With the Highest Union Membership

Pallavi Rao
2024-07-22 14:47:42
www.visualcapitalist.com

American Jobs With the Highest Union Membership in 2023

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In 1983, one-in-five American adults (20%) were in a union. By 2023, only one-in-ten (10%) were in a union, a record low for the country. However, there are still some industries that see rates of union membership that are on the higher end of the spectrum.

This chart shows the rate of union membership of those employed per industry in America. Data for this graphic is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2023.

Government Workers are Often in Unions

Two out of five local government employees are in a union, the highest rate across American industries, as classified by the BLS.

A significant portion of these employees are police officers, as protective services have some of the highest union rates (32%) by occupation.

Industry	Membership Rate	Union Members
Local Government	38%	3.9M
State Government	29%	2.1M
Federal Government	25%	1.0M
Utilities	20%	224K
Transport & Warehousing	16%	1.0M
Education	13%	666K
Film & Sound	12%	47K
Construction	11%	954K
Broadcasting*	10%	26K
Telecommunications	9%	83K

*Excluding the internet. Figures rounded.

Meanwhile, the utilities sector (energy, water supply, sewage removal) has the highest union membership in the private sector (20%) though this works out to about 200,000 members.

About 16% of the transport and warehousing industry—one million strong—belongs to a union. Since 2022, workers at Amazon warehouses in particular have organized into the Amazon Labor Union to protest unsafe working conditions.

Across the top 10 sectors by union membership rate, union employees out-earn non-union employees in eight of them. The wage difference is most noticeable in film & sound jobs, where a union employee makes nearly $1,000 dollars more per week.

Industry	Union Median Weekly Wage	Non-Union Median Weekly Wage
Local Government	$1,357	$1,074
State Government	$1,291	$1,123
Federal Government	$1,393	$1,526
Utilities	$1,686	$1,544
Transport & Warehousing	$1,262	$966
Education	$1,329	$1,168
Film & Sound	$2,276	$1,300
Construction	$1,424	$1,007
Broadcasting*	N/A	N/A
Telecommunications	$1,397	$1,473

*Excluding the internet. Figures rounded. Wage data available here.

On the other end of the scale, professional jobs—accounting, legal, tech, and finance—have the lowest rates of union membership (1%). And in them, non-union members out-earn their union peers.

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