Connecticut union membership down by 3.5 percent

Membership in Connecticut”™s labor unions declined during 2018, according to new data released by the U.S. Department of Labor”™s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Last year, Connecticut had 268,000 union members, a 3.5 percent decline from the 278,000 union members in 2017. Sixteen percent of Connecticut”™s workforce held union membership in 2018, compared with 16.9 percent in 2017. Within Connecticut, there were 280,000 workers in 2018 whose jobs were covered by either a union or an employee association contract, a 5 percent decline from the 295,000 workers in 2017.

Connecticut led the New England region and was ranked sixth in the nation for union membership by percentage. Nationally, 10.5 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 14.7 million workers, held union membership, a 0.2 percent drop from 2017 and a new record low since the start of federal data collection in 1983.