Oregon’s Union Membership
August 29, 2024Oregon consistently outpaces the U.S. in union membership as a share of total employment. In 2023, 14.1% of Oregon’s workers were union members, compared with 10.0% for the United States. Employees who are not union members but whose jobs are covered by union contracts slightly increased the share of union coverage beyond membership rates in both the U.S. and Oregon. The share of covered workers in Oregon totaled 15.0%, while the U.S. coverage rate was 11.2% in 2023.
Nationwide, unions shed 8.6% of their total membership between 2003 and 2023. Although national union membership levels stayed relatively stable between 2013 and 2023, that still represented a declining share of total employment since these were mostly expansion years with job gains. Oregon’s union membership rate fluctuated more than the nation’s from 2003 to 2023 but tended to stay near 15%.
Comparable union membership data are available back to 1983, when union membership totaled 17.7 million nationwide and 222,900 in Oregon. Since then, the U.S. has not matched its peak membership level in 1983. The U.S. coverage level also peaked in 1983 at 20.5 million. In 2023, there were 254,900 Oregon union members and 270,000 Oregon workers covered by union contracts.
Oregon and Other States
Oregon remains among the most unionized states. In 2023, Oregon’s concentration of total union membership ranked ninth highest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The state’s public-sector membership (50.7%) ranked eighth highest, and the private sector’s 7.2% rate ranked fourteenth.
Oregon has a relatively smaller union membership concentration in private manufacturing compared with other states. In 2023, the union membership rate in manufacturing (4.9%) fell in the lower half, ranking 34th, compared with 28th in 2020. In construction, Oregon ranked 15th highest among all states, with 14.9% union membership.
Public Union Membership Leads Private Union Membership
Although the state’s private- and public-sector union membership rates differ, Oregon’s overall number of union members in both private- and public-sector entities began to lean more heavily toward public-sector membership beginning in 2002. From 1983 to 2002, there were only four years where private-sector union membership was lower than public-sector membership. The private sector’s highest share of union membership (61.4%) was in 1984. Since 2003, the public sector’s share of union membership has been higher than the private sector every year. The public sector had its highest share of union membership (57.4%) in 2013.
Year to year, Oregon’s union membership trend fluctuates. The long-term trend has shown decreasing union membership as a share of total employment. This has been the case in both the private and public sectors: peak membership rates occurred in 1984 for private-sector employment (18.7%) and in 1995 for public-sector employment (60.7%).
More information on union membership and coverage in Oregon, the U.S., and all other states can be found at unionstats.com.