Professional Union Membership Grew in 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Katie Barrows
Communications Director
P: 202-549-5991
kbarrows@dpeaflcio.org
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2025 - The number of professionals in unions reached nearly 6.5 million in 2024, according to today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) annual union membership report. This is a slight increase of 32,000 from 2023. The increase in the number of union professionals is part of a longer trend in professionals’ growing presence in the labor movement. The number of professionals in the U.S. workforce also increased in 2024, growing by 39,000 to reach almost 62.8 million. Union density of professionals in 2024 was 10.3 percent.
“I am excited to see that more professionals are joining the labor movement,” said Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) President Jennifer Dorning. “DPE’s research shows that when professionals learn they have the right to join together in union and improve their workplace, they start taking steps to exercise their rights. Today’s BLS numbers reinforce this research. Still, there is a lot of room for union membership growth among professionals. I invite professionals who are interested in forming a union at their workplace to contact us to discuss next steps.”
In 2024, professional union membership saw notable increases in the federal and local government sectors.
The number of professionals in unions also grew in a wide variety of occupations, including:
Architects, engineers, and scientists
Education and childcare administrators
EMTs and paramedics
Firefighters and fire inspectors
Lawyers, judges, and judicial law clerks
Library technicians
Management (i.e. marketing managers, sale managers, fundraising managers)
News analysts, reporters, and journalists
Scientific and clinical laboratory technicians
School and family social workers and mental health counselors
Registered nurses and healthcare technicians
Scientific and clinical laboratory technicians
School and family social workers and mental health counselors
Urban and regional planners
Utility plant operators
Web developers, computer support specialists, network and computer systems administrators, and other computer occupations
The annual union membership data from the BLS includes dues paying members and does not account for active organizing that is currently taking place across the United States. Unions of professionals that have been organizing or won their unions in the past year are likely not reflected in the 2024 BLS union membership data. However, organizing momentum among professionals grew in many sectors and occupations in 2024, including among visual effects artists, nonprofit employees, and healthcare professionals.
Unfortunately, broken labor law remains a barrier for many professionals to be successful in forming their unions. Employers use a variety of tactics to bust employees’ unions, including hiring consultants to help spread misinformation, retaliating against union leaders in the workplace, and refusing to bargain in good faith for prolonged periods of time, and they often face no or little consequences for these anti-union activities.
“Reforms to labor law are needed so that employees who choose to organize a union in their workplace have a fair opportunity to win their union,” said Dorning. “I call on lawmakers to do right by professionals as well as all working people and address broken labor law.”
About DPE
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) is a coalition of 24 unions representing over four million professional and technical union members. DPE affiliate unions represent professionals in over 300 occupations in education and healthcare; science, engineering, and technology; legal, business, and management; media, entertainment, and the arts; and public administration.