Subscribe to Dollars & Sense magazine. Recent articles related to the financial crisis. Union Membership Rises Again in 2008 (BLS)Just in from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hat-tip to Doug Henwood at lbo-talk. As Doug pointed out, two years in a row of increases (after years and years of decline) is pretty impressive, especially under a Republican administration.UNION MEMBERS IN 2008 In 2008, union members accounted for 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of workers belonging to a union rose by 428,000 to 16.1 million. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers. The data on union membership were collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. Some highlights from the 2008 data are:
Read the whole report. Labels: Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions |