October 29, 2011
The WSJ ran a piece about unions having increasing difficulty attracting young members. The article noted that in 1983, 39.6 percent of union members were between the ages of 16 and 34. This figure had fallen to just 24.6 percent in 2010, a drop of 15.0 percentage points. [I should point out that the source of these numbers is my colleague at CEPR, John Schmitt. I apologize for the CEPR promotion.]
This might seem to suggest an alarming failure for unions in their ability to craft a message that is relevant to young workers. However, if we look at one additional item we would note that this group of young workers comprised 48.1 percent of total employment in December of 1983. That had fallen to 34.3 percent for September of 2011, a drop of 13.8 percentage points. In other words, the decline in the proportion of young workers in unions reflects almost entirely a drop of the share of young workers in total employment. There has been little change in the relative ability of unions to attract younger and older workers.
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