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March 1, 2019

Massachusetts union membership increased in 2018

Photo/Google The Boston offices of AFSCME, or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, one of the largest unions in Massachusetts.

The share of Massachusetts employees who belong to a union rose for the second straight year in 2018, even as union membership nationally continues to fall, according to new U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Almost one out of seven wage and salary workers in Massachusetts belong to a union, federal data released Friday shows. That rate of 13.7 percent puts Massachusetts 12th nationally. The national average is 10.5 percent.

The rate of union membership in Massachusetts was 12.4 percent in 2017.

In all, Massachusetts recorded 464,000 union members last year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not break out that data by industry.

Union membership in recent years is still generally down in Massachusetts. The rate was above 16 percent a decade ago, and has mostly fallen since, dovetailing with the national rate, which has been below 12 percent for the past decade.

Union membership is highest in Hawaii (23.1 percent of workers), New York (22.3 percent) and Washington (19.8 percent). It is lowest in North Carolina and South Carolina, which were each at 2.7 percent last year, followed by Utah at 4.1 percent.

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