The Bureau of Labor Statistics today released its annual report on union membership, in 2009 again showing a decline in private sector unionization, now down to 7.2 percent of the workforce. The recession obviously played a major role in 2009 employment figures, union and non-union.

Other major findings:

• In 2009, the union membership rate–the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union–was 12.3 percent, essentially unchanged from 12.4 percent a year earlier.
•  The union membership rate for public sector workers (37.4 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private industry workers (7.2 percent).
• The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions declined by 771,000 to 15.3 million, largely reflecting the overall drop in employment due to the recession. 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.
• More public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), despite there being 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.
• Among states, New York had the highest union membership rate (25.2 percent) and North Carolina had the lowest rate (3.1 percent).

And from James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation (via Michael Franc):

• The average worker for a state or local government earns $39.83 an hour in wages and benefits. His counterpart in the private sector earns considerably less — $27.49 an hour. Over 80 percent of state and local workers have pensions; just 50 percent of private sector workers do. These differences remain, Sherk notes, even after controlling for education, skills, and demographics. The bottom line: Taxpayers now underwrite unionized government jobs that pay considerably more — over $430 per week more — than comparable jobs in the private sector.

Franc observes that “[collective] bargaining gives government employees a strong incentive to support the highest possible level of taxation at every level of government.” Which, we add, discourages investment by the private sector.

After a revised gain of 4,000 jobs in November — the first monthly employment increase in two years — payrolls ended the year down, falling by 85,000 in December according to today’s Labor Department report, while the unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent.

The December report was a mixed bag. While the revised jobs gain in November was encouraging, it would be a mistake to assume that private sector full-time employment is finally on the mend. The gain in November was due entirely to increases in government and temporary employment. Outside of these two areas, payrolls were cut by 55,000 in November and by 110,500 last month.

While overall labor market conditions soured in December, some positive developments did take place. First, temporary employment increased for a fifth consecutive month, an early indication that companies are needing to expand worker-hours in response to rising demand. Second, the decline of 27,000 jobs in manufacturing employment was the shallowest drop in two years. Still, just six of the 19 major manufacturing industries actually increased employment last month.

While today’s report shows that overall economic conditions have improved from the beginning of the year, these numbers still indicate that the economy is still in a fragile state, and manufacturers are still struggling and facing many uncertainties ahead.

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics today released workplace safety statistics for 2008. (BLS release) The data highlight an important, positive development often overlooked by many policymakers – workplace injury and illness continue to significantly improve in both the private sector and more specifically in manufacturing. Overall in the private sector, we saw the most significant improvement with a 7.1 percent decrease in total recordable case rates; rates in manufacturing workplaces improved by 10.7 percent.

While no one factor completely explains this improvement, Members of Congress and Labor Department officials need to understand what’s working before they attempt to overhaul the current system. The leadership at the Labor Department has pledged a new emphasis on more aggressive enforcement and has questioned the effectiveness of non-punitive programs that assist employers to comply with existing standards.

In order to continue improving safety, policymakers should keep doing what works and that’s the cooperative approach that the OSHA has undertaken with employers. Proposals like the Protecting America’s Workers Act will create a more adversarial relationship while doing nothing to reinforce the successful work that’s already taken place.

UPDATE 3:23pm Labor Secretary Hilda Solis acknowledges the improvements, while continuing to stress the need for “strong enforcement.” Safety should be a top priority in every workplace and good injury data is essential, agreed, but we suspect any effort to validate recordkeeping will find the same improving trends among manufacturers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday that the percentage of employees belonging to unions rose from 12.1 to 12.4 percent of the workforce from 2007 to 2008. (BLS news release.) Government employees are nearly five times more likely to belong to a union than private-sector employees.

The union membership rate for public sector workers (36.8 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private industry workers (7.6 percent).  Within the public sector, local government workers had the highest union membership rate, 42.2 percent.  This group includes many workers in several heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers,  police officers, and fire fighters.  Private sector industries with high unionization rates include transportation and utilities (22.2 percent), telecommunications (19.3 percent), and construction (15.6 percent).  In 2008, unionization rates were relatively low in financial activities (1.8 percent) and professional and business services (2.1 percent). 

Washington Post story, “American Union Ranks Grow After ‘Bottoming Out”:

To business groups opposing card check, that jump indicates that the government doesn’t need to make it easier to form unions.

“These statistics show that union membership is growing — and that the system works,” said Keith Smith, director of employment and labor policy at the National Association of Manufacturers.

“Organized labor is running ads claiming that current labor laws prevent them from signing up new members. Too bad the facts aren’t cooperating,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief legal officer Steven Law blogged yesterday.

Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today show that union membership increased by 428,000 to 16.1 million in 2008. While union membership accounted for 12.4 percent of the national workforce, only 7.6 percent of private sector employees are members of a labor union.

These new figures, coupled with data released by the National Labor Relations Board in November, make the clear case that the current system for joining a labor union works. Union membership is on the rise and labor unions currently win more than two-thirds of organizing union representation elections. At what point will labor leaders be satisfied?

Meanwhile, polling data released Monday highlights that the vast majority of union members (74 percent nationwide) wish to retain their right to a secret ballot – a right destroyed by the Employee Free Choice Act. Today’s BLS report confirms that through secret ballots and a free flow of information, workers are able to form a union, if they freely to choose it. It’s those freedoms that are at risk if organized labor forces through its No. 1 political priority, which would more accurately be called, the Employee FORCED Choice Act.

The bad news just came out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported by AFP, “US sheds 524,000 jobs; unemployment hits 7.2%”:

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US economy shed 524,000 jobs in December, sending the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, according to official data published Friday.

The recession-ravaged economy lost 2.6 million jobs over the course of 2008, the most since 1945, the Labor Department said. Of those, 1.9 million were lost in the past four months.

The jobless rate, which is calculated on a separate household survey, climbed to 7.2 percent from 6.8 percent a month earlier, hitting the highest level since January 1993, the report showed.

And what is on the floor agenda of the U.S. House of Representatives today? Two measures that will raise the costs of hiring new employees: H.R. 11, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and H.R. 12, the Paycheck Fairness Act. The measures will not worsen unemployment, but they will certainly discourage employers from doing anything to reduce joblessness.

Very short versions: The Ledbetter Act removes statutes of limitations on filing wage complaints, and the Paycheck Fairness Act expands the grounds on which disgruntled employees can sue for gender discrimination under the Equal Pay Act. Advocates sell the bills as “restoring fairness” to the workplace, even though employment discrimination is already against the law.

They’ve done a remarkable job of keeping their fingerprints off the measures, but the major beneficiaries of the legislation are the trial lawyers, who will file many more lawsuits in the hopes of a big payoff or, more likely, a big-enough settlement from a company that finds it problematic to fight a lawsuit through the courts. Meanwhile, disgruntled employees will find it easier to tie their employers into knots.

No doubt there will be sincere unhappiness as well as political anguish expressed on the floor today about the unemployment rate (and anguish is a fair response). But then House members will give speeches about malicious employers and terrible treatment of employees.

We wish someone were frank enough to say: “Today, in the face of this horrible unemployment rate, I strongly support these bills to raise the marginal costs of labor. Each new hire will now bring with it greater legal liability and add costs to a company’s operations. In a time of severe recession, I believe this is the right thing to do, but, ahem, mostly for political reasons.”