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Despite high public approval ratings and an increase in union representation elections at the National Labor Relations Board, the overall union membership rate in the US has continued to decline, reaching a record low of 9.9 percent in 2024. The share of private sector employees who are union members also hit a record low of 5.9 percent in 2024, having shrunk by 0.1 percentage points and 184,000 union members from 2023 to 2024 (Figure 1). The number of public sector union members ticked up slightly (+15,000 members) between 2023 and 2024, but the share of public employees who belong to unions decreased by 0.3 percentage points (from 32.5 percent to 32.2 percent), indicating slower membership growth relative to total public employment.

Figure 1

While the year-over-year fluctuations are small, the decline in union membership is more noticeable when comparing the 2024 levels to those immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the private sector, the share of workers who were union members fell by 0.3 percentage points over this period, with 278,000 fewer private sector union members in 2024 than in 2019. The industries with the most significant changes to union membership between 2019 and 2024 were manufacturing (down 0.8 percentage points and 167,000 members); mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (up 2.6 percentage points and 7,000 members); and utilities (down 4.7 percentage points and 39,000 members).

However, the losses have been especially dramatic in the public sector, where union membership fell by 1.4 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 – dropping from 33.6 percent to 32.2 percent over the five year period. This corresponded to a loss of 41,000 public sector union members. While union membership has remained somewhat stable in the federal government, union membership in state and local government has seen more noticeable declines. In local government specifically, there were 177,000 fewer union members in 2024 than in 2019, corresponding with a 1.2 percentage point reduction in union density. Across the public sector, union membership among those in education, training, and library occupations fell by 1.3 percentage points between 2019 and 2024, corresponding with a loss of 107,000 members during this period.

Public sector unions have proven increasingly vital as a bulwark against the Trump administration’s attacks on the federal workforce. Collective Bargaining Agreements are helping stave off punitive return-to-office orders, for example, showing the importance of collective power when other mechanisms fail to protect workers. However, public sector workers face a more challenging legal environment, with many states restricting or disallowing collective bargaining by public sector employees, who are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Despite these obstacles, public sector workers continue to organize and to push back on laws that would curtail their right to do so. Their persistence demonstrates that collective action remains a vital tool for advancing workplace justice and dignity, even in the face of systemic challenges.

At the same time, trends in union membership by race and ethnicity highlight stark differences in how these changes have played out across demographic groups. Unions provide a key mechanism to fight discrimination and can act as a critical safeguard when other avenues fall short. In 2024, the union membership rate remained higher among Black workers than any other racial/ethnic group (Figure 2), though the current level represents a stark departure from decades past. According to CEPR’s analysis – which uses mutually exclusive race and ethnicity categories that differ slightly from those used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — union membership density among Black workers dipped slightly between 2023 and 2024, but has increased by 0.8 percentage points since 2019. The number of Black union members also increased by 250,000 between 2019 and 2024. Union density decreased for all other racial/ethnic groups during this period, with the largest decline in membership taking place among white workers, dropping by 0.7 percentage points between 2019 and 2024.

Figure 2

The share of disabled workers who belong to a union returned to its 2022 level of 9.2 percent, the lowest on record for this group (Figure 3). It declined by 0.4 percentage points between 2023 and 2024, and 0.5 percentage points between 2019 and 2024. The downturn in union membership among disabled workers is troubling, given the sizable advantage that disabled workers derive from union representation.

Figure 3

Finally, while President Trump has recently recommended that Canada become the 51st US state, Canada is home to a much stronger labor movement. Union membership density in Canada is nearly three times as high as it is in the US, and outpaces even the US states with the highest density (Hawaii and New York). As Figure 4 shows, this union membership gap between the two countries has expanded over time, with membership in the US contracting much faster than its northern neighbor. Canada has more pro-worker policies and a more robust enforcement regime than the US.

Figure 4

The first days of the Trump Administration have been inauspicious for federal workers in particular. To further shore up the working class, including the public sector working class, in the days ahead, it is essential for the labor movement to not only fortify its current membership but to continue to grow and flourish. To that end, policymakers should pursue labor law reforms like the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act. They must also draft additional legislation to codify “card check” recognition and to ensure that enforcement agents like the NLRB have the resources they need. Finally, those within the US labor movement must commit to ambitious organizing goals and begin to reverse decades of decline in union density.