Key Points:
- The share of U.S. workers who are members of unions fell to a record low last year even though unions added more members than in any year since 2008.
- Roughly 10.1% of wage and salary workers were union members last year, down from 10.3% in 2021.
- Union membership grew by 273,000 last year to 14.3 million, a rise of 1.9%. But the overall labor force grew by 5.3 million, or 3.9%.
- The economic rebound from the pandemic has resulted in a persistent labor shortage with job openings vastly outnumbering the number of unemployed workers. There were about 10.5 million job openings in November, according to the latest available data, compared with six million unemployed people looking for work during the same month.