Union Membership: Up in Ohio, Down Nationwide

Ohio’s union membership climbed in 2018 while union membership overall decreased nationwide according to a recently released report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ohio had 639,000 union members in 2018. This was up from 635,000 in 2016. The 4,000 member uptick raised the membership rate from 12.5% of Ohio workers in 2017 to 12.6% in 2018.

Overall across the country union membership declined in 2018. In 2018, 14.7 million workers were part of a union, which was down from 14.8 million workers in 2017.

For a historical comparison: In 1983, around 17.7 million workers belonged to a union, which was 20.1% of U.S. workers. Today’s national percentage is half of that number with 10.5% of workers affiliated with a union. 1/24/2019