The Fact
BLS reports 17.7 million union members in 1983 and 14.7 million in 2025. Over the same period, the wage-and-salary workforce grew substantially, which is why the membership rate fell even more sharply than the headcount.
What This Means
There were about 3 million fewer union members in 2025 than in 1983 even though the pool of wage-and-salary workers was much larger. Collective bargaining therefore became less common both in absolute membership and as a share of workers.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Union Members — 2025, USDL-26-0229, February 18, 2026.