The State Worker

Chronicling civil-service life for California state workers

Our story about public employee unions in today's fiber and cyber Bee notes that private sector union coverage of workers has been in decline for many years, while government union coverage hasn't. As we were researching for the story, UCLA sociologist Ruth Milkman put us on to a Web site for union census data, sliced in a variety of ways.  

Various sections look at union membership and coverage nationally and by metro area, industry and occupation. You can see the numbers for total employment, the number of union members and the number of workers covered by a union contract. There's stuff on there about union coverage by industry and occupation, too.

You can view the site, Unionstats.com, by clicking here. It's maintained by Barry Hirsch of Georgia State University and David Macpherson of Florida State University.

It wouldn't surprise us if many users of this blog already know about this resource, but it was new to us, so we wanted to share it.

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About The State Worker

Jon Ortiz The Author

Jon Ortiz, a member of The Bee's business staff since 2003, reports on workplace and labor issues. Join him for updates and debate on state pay, benefits, pensions, contracts and jobs.

June 2009

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