Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the national union membership rate was 10.7 percent in 2017—the same rate as in 2016. In Washington, the union membership rate was 18.7 percent in 2017, up from 17.4 percent in 2016. For 2017, Washington has the third-highest union membership rate in the nation.

Professors Barry Hirsch of Georgia State University and David Macpherson of Trinity University maintain a database that provides a breakout of public- and private-sector unionization by state. It shows that Washington’s unionization increase last year was due to an increase in private-sector union membership. (Washington’s 2016 unionization increase was driven by the public sector.) Private-sector employment in Washington increased by 1.1 percent in 2017; the number of private-sector union members increased by 22.0 percent.

In 2017, public-sector union membership in Washington was 52.6 percent (ninth-highest in the country). Private-sector union membership in Washington was 12.1 percent (third-highest). The table shows the state rankings for 2017.

The chart shows union membership over time, for Washington and the U.S.