In January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its 2011 Union Members Survey, which Dick wrote about here.  Briefly, BLS found that union membership was 11.8 percent nationally, with a public-sector union membership rate of 37.0 percent and a private-sector membership rate of 6.9 percent.

Using BLS data, Professors Barry Hirsch (Georgia State University) and David Macpherson (Trinity University) have estimated the rates of public- and private-sector unionization by state.  (Their estimates are available here.)

According to Hirsch and Macpherson, public-sector union membership in Washington was 52.4 percent in 2011 (down from 56.8 percent in 2010), private-sector union membership was 11.1 percent (up from 10.7 percent in 2010), and total union membership was 18.9 percent (down from 19.4 percent in 2010).  Below are tables showing Washington’s unionization in 2011 compared to other states and Washington’s union membership rates over time.