CRS Report Finds More Private Sector Workers Covered By Collective Bargaining Agreements Than Public Employees

A March 2014 report issued by Congressional Research Services (CRS) found that more private sector employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in 2013 than public sector employees – a reversal from a trend that started in 2009 in which unionized public sector workers started to outpace their private sector counterparts. According to the report, 8.1 million private sector workers were covered by CBAs in 2013 compared to 7.9 public sector employees (in 2009, 8.7 million public sector workers were covered as opposed to just 8.2 million private sector workers). Here are a few more notable points from the CRS report: -While the number of organized employees in the private sector was larger than the public sector, the overall percentage of unionized employees in the public sector (38.7%) still remained higher than the private sector (7.5%). -Since 1983, there has been a significant decline of unionization in the US: in the private sector the rate has fallen from 18.5% to 7.5% and in the public sector it has decreased from 45.5% to 38.7%. A copy of the report can be found here.

• RELATED TOPICS
• Collective Bargaining
• private sector employees
• public employees