Overview
- The Labor Department reports about 14.7 million union members in 2025, up roughly 410,000 from the prior year.
- The increase was concentrated in government, where unionization stands at 32.9 percent, while the private-sector rate was unchanged at 5.9 percent, including BLS data showing the federal government now employs more union members than manufacturing.
- The number of workers represented by union contracts rose to its highest level since 2009.
- Public-sector growth included tens of thousands of federal civil servants joining unions as the administration stripped bargaining rights, canceled contracts, and the NLRB lacked a quorum.
- Recent wins are not reflected because workers are not counted until first contracts are in place, excluding campaigns like Starbucks baristas and Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant that only secured a tentative agreement this month.