The union membership rate—the percentage of wage and salary workers who were members of unions—was 11.3 percent in 2013, the same as in 2012. Public-sector workers had a union membership rate of 35.3 percent in 2013. That was more than five times higher than the rate for private-sector workers, 6.7 percent.
Within the public sector, the union membership rate was highest in 2013 for local government workers, 40.8 percent. Local government includes employees in heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and firefighters. The union membership rate in 2013 was 30.9 percent among state government workers and 26.5 percent among federal government workers.
In the private sector, industries with high unionization rates include utilities (25.6 percent), transportation and warehousing (19.6 percent), and construction (14.1 percent). Low unionization rates occurred in agriculture and related industries (1.0 percent), financial activities (2.0 percent), professional and business services (2.4 percent), and leisure and hospitality (2.7 percent).
These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see "Union Members — 2013" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑0095. Historical data on union membership are available through an online table tool.
United States Department of Labor
