U.S. Labor’s Watershed Year Failed to Boost Union Memberships
- 2021 union membership rate is back to historic low of 2019
- Last year was marked with many strikes and efforts to organize
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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.