Union membership in the U.S., California and L.A.
(Graphic by Dianne de Guzman) Source: UCLA IRLE

The number of union members in California increased 2.3 percent from a year ago, helped by gains in construction unions, while membership has declined 3 percent nationwide, according to a study from the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

In California, the number of union workers rose 28 percent in construction, 16 percent in transportation and utilities, and 1.6 percent in educational services.

Union membership statewide fell 16 percent in wholesale and retail, 7.9 percent in manufacturing, and 2.7 percent in health care and social services.

In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, union membership rose 0.8 percent, as similar increases in construction, transportation and utilities, and public administration unions more than offset losses in other industries.

The share of all workers who are unionized has increased in California and the Los Angeles area from a year earlier, but has shrunk in the country overall.

That is a reflection of the region's relatively high public-sector unionization rate and lower reliance on manufacturing, write the study's authors, Lauren Appelbaum of the IRLE and Ben Zipperer of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

More than half of all public-sector workers are unionized in California and Los Angeles compared to just over a third nationwide.

"The loss of so many private-sector jobs may have contributed to the relative increase in unionized workers, since public-sector jobs have higher rates of unionization than does private-sector employment," the study says.

Eighteen percent of the state's workers are in a union, up from 16 percent a year ago. In the Los Angeles area, the share of unionized workers rose to 17.5 percent from 15.6 percent. The share for the United States fell to 12 percent from 13.9 percent.