United States

Labour force

With an unemployment rate that returned to the traditional level of roughly 5 percent per year following the higher rates that had resulted from the Great Recession, the U.S. labour market is in line with those of other developed countries. The service sector accounts for more than three-fourths of the country’s jobs, whereas industrial and manufacturing trades employ less than one-fifth of the labour market.

After peaking in the 1950s, when 36 percent of American workers were enrolled in unions, union membership at the beginning of the 21st century had fallen to less than 15 percent of U.S. workers, nearly half of them government employees. The transformation in the late 20th century to a service-based economy changed the nature of labour unions. Organizational efforts, once aimed primarily at manufacturing industries, are now focused on service industries. The country’s largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), represents teachers. In 2005 three large labour unions broke their affiliation with the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the nationwide federation of unions, and formed a new federation, the Change to Win coalition, with the goal of reviving union influence in the labour market. Although the freedom to strike is qualified with provisions requiring cooling-off periods and in some cases compulsory arbitration, major unions are able and sometimes willing to embark on long strikes.

AFL-CIO “Make Wall Street Pay” demonstrationWorkers participating in an AFL-CIO “Make Wall Street Pay” demonstration on March 25, 2010, in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle—Getty Images News/Thinkstock