U.S. Labor’s Watershed Year Failed to Boost Union Memberships

After a year marked by weekslong labor strikes and unprecedented movements to organize at some of the largest corporations in the U.S., unionization levels fell back to historic lows.

The rate of union membership, or the percentage of wage and salary workers who were part of a union, dropped to 10.3% in 2021, matching the record low in 2019, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Thursday.

Among private-sector workers, the numbers were even bleaker: union members made up just 6.1% of that workforce, compared to 33.9% of the public sector.

“There’s no denying that there has been an ...