The good news is that a solid labor market added 2.2 million jobs in 2024 and that a record 48% of nonunion workers say they would vote to have union representation—which is up from 1977 and 1995, when only about 32-33% of nonunion, non-managerial workers said they would vote to unionize if they could. The bad news is that with all the new jobs created, nonunion positions grew faster than union ones. This meant that the share of American workers in unions dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.9 percent last year, even as the year was marked by a surge in union election filings and several high-profile strikes, reports the Economic
Policy Institute. According to the Labor Department, approximately 14.3 million workers were union members
in 2024, reflecting a decline of about 100,000 members from 2023. The private sector experienced a loss of around 184,000 members in 2024, while the public sector saw a gain of approximately 15,000.
