The share of Connecticut workers represented by a labor union dropped sharply between 2020 and 2021, according to new data from federal researchers, but the numbers likely say more about the gradual rebound of non-union positions during that period than the strength of unions themselves.
In 2021, union members accounted for 14.6% of wage and salary workers in Connecticut, down from 2020, when that figure stood at 17.1%, according to the New England Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The drop brings the state back in line with pre-pandemic figures from 2019, when unionized employees represented 14.5% of Connecticut’s workforce.
BLS researchers said the share of union positions increased on paper in 2020 because so many non-union jobs were wiped out by the lockdowns and economic restrictions enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As those jobs gradually came back through 2021, the pre-pandemic balance between union and non-union workers reemerged.
Connecticut had approximately 223,000 union members in 2021. In addition, another 25,000 wage and salary workers were represented by a union on their main job or covered by an employee association or contract while not union members themselves.
Historically, Connecticut has had a higher share of union workers than the country as a whole, and that continues to hold true, with the U.S. union membership rate just above 10%.
The state’s union membership rate peaked in 1995, when it averaged 20.2%, and hit its low-point in 2013, when it fell to 13.5%.
