Union Membership in Virginia, 2007 (PDF)

In 2007, the number of workers belonging to a union declined by 10,000 to 129,000 in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.  Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that union members accounted for 3.7 percent of wage and salary workers in Virginia in 2007 compared to 4.0 percent posted in 2006.  In Virginia, the union membership rate has declined fairly steadily from its high of 9.3 in 1992.  (See chart A.) 

Nationally, the number of workers belonging to a union rose by 311,000 to 15,670,000 in 2007.  Union members accounted for 12.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, essentially unchanged from 12.0 percent in 2006.  In 1983, the first year for which comparable national union data were available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent.

Chart A.  Members of unions as a percent of employed in the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1989-2007

In Virginia, 129,000 wage and salary workers were union members in 2007.  An additional 38,000 wage and salary workers were represented by a union on their main job, while not being union members themselves.  (See table A.)  Nationwide, nearly 15.7 million wage and salary workers were union members in 2007, while another 1.6 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union on their main job but not union members themselves.

In 2007, 30 states and the District of Columbia had union membership rates below that of the U.S. average, 12.1 percent, while 20 states had higher rates.  (See table 1.)  All states in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific divisions reported union membership rates above the national average and all states in the East South Central and West South Central divisions had rates below it.  In the South Atlantic division union membership rates were mixed, with seven states (including Virginia and Washington, D.C.) having rates below the U.S. average and two states (Maryland and West Virginia) having rates above it.  (See chart 1.)  Union membership rates were down from those of 2006 in 27 states (including Virginia), up in 20 states, and unchanged in 3 states and the District of Columbia.

Virginia was among five states reporting union membership rates below 5.0 percent in 2007.  North Carolina posted the lowest rate (3.0 percent), followed by Virginia (3.7 percent), South Carolina (4.1 percent), Georgia (4.4 percent), and Texas (4.7 percent).  Four states had union membership rates over 20.0 percent in 2007─New York (25.2 percent), Alaska (23.8 percent), Hawaii (23.4 percent), and Washington (20.2 percent).

Nearly half (7.8 million) of the 15.7 million union members in the United States lived in 6 states (California, 2.5 million; New York, 2.1 million; Illinois, 0.8 million; Michigan, 0.8 million; Pennsylvania, 0.8 million; and New Jersey, 0.7 million) though these states accounted for only about one-third of wage and salary employment nationally.

State union membership levels depend on both the union membership rate and the employment level.  For example, Virginia and Hawaii had virtually the same number of union members in 2007, even though Virginia’s wage and salary employment level was more than six times that of Hawaii’s.  On the other hand, Texas had less than one-quarter as many union members as New York despite having over 1.7 million more wage and salary employees.

Technical Note

The estimates in this release are obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides the basic information on the labor force, employment, and unemployment.  The survey is conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau from a scientifically selected sample of about 60,000 households nationwide.  The union membership data are tabulated from one-quarter of the CPS monthly sample and are limited to wage and salary workers.  All self-employed workers are excluded.

Union membership data, particularly levels, for each year are not strictly comparable with data for earlier years because of the introduction of revised population controls used in the CPS.  The effect of the revised population controls on the union membership estimates is unknown.  However, the effect of the new controls on the monthly CPS estimates was to increase the December 2006 employment level by 153,000 and the unemployment level by 10,000.  The updated controls had little or no effect on unemployment rates and other ratios.  For additional information, see "Adjustments to Household Survey Population Estimates in January 2007" in the February 2007 issue of Employment and Earnings, available on the Internet at www.bls.gov/cps/cps07adj.pdf.

For personal assistance or further information on union membership, as well as other Bureau data, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.  Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.  Voice phone: 202-691-5200, TDD message referral phone number: 1-800-877-8339.

The CPS data also are affected by nonsampling error.  Nonsampling error can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the sample, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information, and errors made in the collection or processing of the data.

For a full discussion of the reliability of data from the CPS and information on estimating standard errors, see the "Explanatory Notes and Estimates of Error" section of Employment and Earnings.

Definitions

The principal definitions used in this release are described briefly below.

Union members.  Data refer to members of a labor union or an employee association similar to a union.

Represented by unions.  Data refer to union members, as well as workers who have no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union or an employee association contract.

Wage and salary workers.  Workers who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payment in kind, or piece rates.  The group includes employees in both the private and public sectors, but, for the purposes of the union membership and earnings series, excludes all self-employed persons, regardless of whether or not their businesses are incorporated.