Union membership in South Carolina increased to 69,000 in 2013 from 58,000 the previous year, a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows. Only 3.7% of workers in South Carolina belong to unions, and that percentage is the third-lowest nationwide.
South Carolina’s workforce grew to 1.86 million people in 2013, up from 1.77 million in 2012, the report shows.
The report shows that the percentage of union members in South Carolina’s work force ranks the state as the third-lowest nationally, alongside Mississippi and behind only North Carolina at 3% and Arkansas at 3.5%. The percentage of union-represented workers in the state increased to 4.7%, or 86,000, in 2013, from 4.6%, or 82,000 in 2012.