Union membership falling in Ohio

The share of Ohio workers in unions dipped last year, in line with a national trend of declining union membership.

The big picture: The percentage of American workers belonging to a union in 2021 fell to 10.3%, Axios' Nathan Bomey writes.

• That amounts to around 14 million workers, per data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Zoom in: Ohio recorded a slightly higher union membership rate of 12% in 2021, down from 13.2% in 2020.

• Just short of 600,000 Ohio workers are in a union, with an extra 51,000 unaffiliated workers covered by a union or similar employee association contract.

Between the lines: Public-sector workers are five times more likely to be in a union than those in the private-sector, federal data shows, with high union membership rates in the education, training and library sectors.

• There are very low unionization rates in industries dominant in Columbus such as finance, food service and insurance.