Union Free America

Are They Killing Our Jobs, Too?

Let’s face it, at least in private employment, labor unions are on the way out.

Unions have been going downhill for about fifty years. There was a time when almost 35% of all workers on private payrolls were union members.  By 2013 it had fallen to 6.7%.

Unions probably deserve to pass the way of the horse and carriage.  They have outlived their usefulness.

But working Americans who are trapped in unions because of decisions that were made by others long before they got their jobs have a real problem.

 Union Percent of Workers on Private Payrolls

Unions aren’t just dying, they seem to be killing jobs, too. Take a look at what’s happening in manufacturing.

The number of manufacturing jobs is on the decline. Between 1983 and 2013 manufacturing jobs in America declined by about 4.9 million but most of that loss was in unionized jobs.  The number of unionized manufacturing jobs fell from 5.3 million in 1983 to 1.4 million in 2013. That's a 73% loss.

During that same period of time, the number of nonunion manufacturing jobs only declined by about 7.3% from 13.7 to 12.7 million.

American workers are hard working and productive. They can compete in a global economy but not when they have the additional burden of a union.

It is no wonder that more and more workers are saying, 

“America works best Union Free”

Updated March 26, 2014

The source of the above statistics is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey.

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