Union Membership, Coverage, Density, and Employment Among
Federal, Postal, State, and Local Public Sector Workers, 1983-2012
Year	Obs	Employment	Members	Covered	%Mem	%Cov
Federal (excluding Postal):
1983	5,510	2,416.9	469.3	711.2	19.4	29.4
1984	5,362	2,452.7	418.4	642.1	17.1	26.2
1985	5,242	2,550.7	417.8	623.1	16.4	24.4
1986	4,977	2,530.1	409.5	618.3	16.2	24.4
1987	4,946	2,552.5	415.0	607.6	16.3	23.8
1988	4,770	2,567.0	442.4	663.0	17.2	25.8
1989	4,611	2,509.9	379.5	588.2	15.1	23.4
1990	4,811	2,573.2	389.5	623.9	15.1	24.2
1991	4,667	2,571.8	407.3	645.9	15.8	25.1
1992	4,449	2,523.4	438.0	674.0	17.4	26.7
1993	4,408	2,604.5	442.2	668.6	17.0	25.7
1994	4,390	2,628.8	508.2	728.8	19.3	27.7
1995	4,374	2,561.6	458.2	660.8	17.9	25.8
1996	3,686	2,430.7	418.2	595.0	17.2	24.5
1997	3,550	2,329.7	396.2	565.3	17.0	24.3
1998	3,476	2,360.1	447.5	593.0	19.0	25.1
1999	3,520	2,373.2	423.9	588.2	17.9	24.8
2000	3,539	2,338.5	406.8	522.0	17.4	22.3
2001	3,904	2,409.5	443.2	566.5	18.4	23.5
2002	4,185	2,382.3	442.6	569.6	18.6	23.9
2003	4,166	2,398.7	444.5	579.1	18.5	24.1
2004	4,201	2,463.6	434.8	563.0	17.6	22.9
2005	4,328	2,614.0	430.7	573.4	16.5	21.9
2006	4,281	2,573.9	448.5	576.3	17.4	22.4
2007	4,252	2,617.2	417.7	539.4	16.0	20.6
2008	4,414	2,710.4	479.3	604.8	17.7	22.3
2009	4,540	2,801.4	504.2	648.5	18.0	23.2
2010	4,658	2,992.0	518.8	666.0	17.3	22.3
2011	4,515	2,866.9	525.8	670.9	18.3	23.4
2012	4,355	2,855.2	498.7	621.0	17.5	21.7
Postal:
1983	1,431	705.2	523.3	588.7	74.2	83.5
1984	1,398	719.8	532.3	596.3	73.9	82.8
1985	1,422	725.1	539.0	599.7	74.3	82.7
1986	1,552	824.3	599.9	660.0	72.8	80.1
1987	1,615	869.8	645.3	707.6	74.2	81.4
1988	1,485	872.5	650.1	710.2	74.5	81.4
1989	1,478	896.6	657.0	715.3	73.3	79.8
1990	1,542	866.3	668.0	724.3	77.1	83.6
1991	1,512	862.9	636.4	695.4	73.8	80.6
1992	1,431	822.7	595.0	646.4	72.3	78.6
1993	1,435	845.7	605.2	667.0	71.6	78.9
1994	1,430	889.2	673.0	734.6	75.7	82.6
1995	1,384	885.4	658.8	712.3	74.4	80.5
1996	1,153	852.8	621.5	682.3	72.9	80.0
1997	1,206	887.2	634.0	701.0	71.5	79.0
1998	1,228	908.8	657.2	705.9	72.3	77.7
1999	1,229	891.0	623.4	686.4	70.0	77.0
2000	1,214	894.8	626.4	663.9	70.0	74.2
2001	1,252	870.7	591.4	631.0	67.9	72.5
2002	1,396	873.7	614.9	655.4	70.4	75.0
2003	1,315	848.2	559.3	616.9	65.9	72.7
2004	1,248	834.5	549.9	590.5	65.9	70.8
2005	1,204	812.7	523.6	560.7	64.4	69.0
2006	1,174	807.5	511.4	562.5	63.3	69.7
2007	1,122	805.9	498.3	539.9	61.8	67.0
2008	1,139	831.9	514.7	562.6	61.9	67.6
2009	1,092	792.4	500.6	543.7	63.2	68.6
2010	976	678.1	465.2	488.2	68.6	72.0
2011	975	699.5	476.8	512.8	68.2	73.3
2012	918	695.9	458.2	493.1	65.8	70.9
State:
1983	8,236	3,800.1	1,071.3	1,365.7	28.2	35.9
1984	8,157	3,862.4	1,077.3	1,347.6	27.9	34.9
1985	8,238	3,982.0	1,089.0	1,337.4	27.3	33.6
1986	8,165	4,066.8	1,138.5	1,379.7	28.0	33.9
1987	8,250	4,225.1	1,192.3	1,440.1	28.2	34.1
1988	8,098	4,274.4	1,228.3	1,471.0	28.7	34.4
1989	8,435	4,476.2	1,304.6	1,551.4	29.1	34.7
1990	8,867	4,567.6	1,289.1	1,536.6	28.2	33.6
1991	8,785	4,624.7	1,377.1	1,601.7	29.8	34.6
1992	8,864	4,820.1	1,403.4	1,643.8	29.1	34.1
1993	8,761	4,962.5	1,535.9	1,776.7	30.9	35.8
1994	8,722	5,174.3	1,595.5	1,860.7	30.8	36.0
1995	8,537	5,171.4	1,530.7	1,786.4	29.6	34.5
1996	7,496	5,132.1	1,566.0	1,809.7	30.5	35.3
1997	7,433	5,031.0	1,484.6	1,678.9	29.5	33.4
1998	7,585	5,149.8	1,430.7	1,667.3	27.8	32.4
1999	7,666	5,233.4	1,526.8	1,781.0	29.2	34.0
2000	7,903	5,464.3	1,641.4	1,867.0	30.0	34.2
2001	8,743	5,662.0	1,724.3	1,949.0	30.5	34.4
2002	9,456	5,653.7	1,755.6	1,979.5	31.1	35.0
2003	9,012	5,636.2	1,706.4	1,929.8	30.3	34.2
2004	9,064	5,711.7	1,750.8	1,960.8	30.7	34.3
2005	9,227	5,873.7	1,837.8	2,056.5	31.3	35.0
2006	9,388	6,101.9	1,843.1	2,049.3	30.2	33.6
2007	9,718	6,384.4	1,943.0	2,167.9	30.4	34.0
2008	9,238	6,176.3	1,954.6	2,167.3	31.6	35.1
2009	9,457	6,294.3	2,024.8	2,222.1	32.2	35.3
2010	9,353	6,327.6	1,968.8	2,190.8	31.1	34.6
2011	9,176	6,256.0	1,970.1	2,186.2	31.5	34.9
2012	9,027	6,277.4	1,964.2	2,186.0	31.3	34.8
Local:
1983	17,444	8,711.6	3,673.3	4,446.6	42.2	51.0
1984	17,227	8,797.8	3,627.6	4,359.8	41.2	49.6
1985	17,145	8,813.6	3,697.3	4,360.4	42.0	49.5
1986	16,775	8,969.4	3,742.7	4,415.9	41.7	49.2
1987	16,925	9,217.0	3,803.2	4,410.4	41.3	47.9
1988	16,356	9,476.7	3,978.4	4,640.9	42.0	49.0
1989	16,515	9,608.0	4,083.1	4,759.6	42.5	49.5
1990	17,613	9,775.2	4,138.5	4,806.7	42.3	49.2
1991	17,484	9,934.0	4,211.2	4,852.9	42.4	48.9
1992	17,191	9,996.8	4,216.7	4,876.5	42.2	48.8
1993	17,132	10,216.9	4,434.5	5,050.1	43.4	49.4
1994	15,611	9,646.8	4,314.3	4,867.7	44.7	50.5
1995	15,289	9,739.1	4,279.7	4,827.0	43.9	49.6
1996	13,624	9,794.3	4,248.6	4,742.8	43.4	48.4
1997	13,731	9,899.3	4,231.8	4,722.8	42.7	47.7
1998	13,572	9,982.3	4,369.9	4,848.5	43.8	48.6
1999	14,146	10,440.5	4,484.0	4,910.7	42.9	47.0
2000	13,916	10,278.2	4,435.9	4,922.8	43.2	47.9
2001	14,593	10,188.1	4,388.6	4,828.8	43.1	47.4
2002	16,229	10,488.3	4,514.0	4,927.5	43.0	47.0
2003	16,287	10,827.1	4,613.9	5,059.9	42.6	46.7
2004	15,849	10,960.5	4,531.6	5,016.8	41.3	45.8
2005	15,791	11,080.4	4,638.3	5,071.2	41.9	45.8
2006	15,216	10,908.4	4,574.8	4,984.4	41.9	45.7
2007	15,317	11,245.7	4,697.8	5,126.2	41.8	45.6
2008	15,600	11,586.0	4,883.8	5,341.5	42.2	46.1
2009	15,225	11,244.5	4,866.9	5,263.2	43.3	46.8
2010	14,861	11,035.0	4,670.2	5,061.0	42.3	45.9
2011	14,183	10,609.3	4,577.4	4,939.2	43.1	46.6
2012	13,923	10,544.4	4,398.4	4,761.5	41.7	45.2
Data sources: For the years 1973-81 the May Current Population (CPS). For the years
1983-2012 the CPS Outgoing Rotation Group (ORG) Earnings Files.  There were no
union questions in the 1982 CPS.  Sample includes wage and salary workers, ages
16 and over.  Variable definitions are: Obs=CPS sample size; Employment=wage and
salary employment in thousands, Members=employed workers who are union members
in thousands, Covered=workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement in
thousands, %Mem=percent of employed workers who are union members, and
%Cov=percent of employed workers who are covered by a collective bargaining
agreement. The definition of union membership was expanded in 1977 to include
"employee associations similar to a union".
© 2013 by Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson.  The use of data requires citation.