KANSAS CITY – In 2022, union members accounted for 9.6 percent of wage and salary workers in Missouri, compared with 9.0 percent in 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted that the union membership rate for the state was at its peak with an average of 15.5 percent in 1989, the first year comparable state data became available, and at its low point in 2014 at 8.4 percent. (See chart 1.)
Nationwide, union members accounted for 10.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers in 2022. The rate was down from 10.3 percent in 2021, primarily the result of a disproportionately large increase in the number of total wage and salary employment compared with the increase in the number of union members. The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record.