Public Sector Drop Undermines Unions’ Organizing Success in 2023

A decline in state and municipal union jobs dragged down the nation’s overall union membership rate last year to a record low of 10%, even as the labor movement made notable gains in the private sector.

Unions have held a tight grip on government workplaces for decades, maintaining membership rates five times higher than the private sector. But sluggish efforts to replace workers who fled or were laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic continue to pose challenges for public-sector unions, labor analysts said of Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Jan. 23.

“There were gains in the federal government and ...