The Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday reported another year of decline in union membership.

In 2012, the union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a
union—was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also declined over
the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership
rate was 20.1 percent, and there were 17.7 million union workers.

The BLS notes that 35.9 percent of public sector workers belong to unions, contrasting with a private sector unionization of just 6.6 percent.

Seattle Times editorial writer Bruce Ramsey notes that Washington remains the fourth most unionized state.

Stateline and the New York Times have good discussion of the trend, noting particularly union falloff in Wisconsin and Indiana following labor reform legislation in those states.