Illinois at near record-low union membership in 2025

Just 13.1% of workers in Illinois were union members in 2025. Thousands of government workers have rejected union membership.

Union membership in Illinois was at a near-record low in 2025, according to a release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Feb. 18.

Just 13.1% of workers in Illinois were union members, the same rate as in 2024. Those numbers followed a record low of 12.8% in 2023.

Nationwide, there was little change in union membership numbers between 2024 and 2025, with about 10% of workers belonging to unions.

But that number is largely driven by government jobs.

The rate of government workers belonging to their unions is more than five times higher than the rate of private-sector workers across the U.S.

While the Illinois-specific data released by BLS combines membership in both public and private sector unions, the overall decline in Illinois has been marked by the rejection of union membership by thousands of government workers:

• The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 claims to represent more than 90,000 active and retired government employees across the state. But its most recent filing with the U.S. Department of Labor shows it has fewer than 60,000 members – meaning more than one-third have rejected union membership.
• The Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois-Indiana claims on its website to represent 90,000 healthcare, child care, nursing home and home healthcare workers across four states, including Illinois. Yet its most recent federal filing revealed it has fewer than 70,000 members. That means more than one-in-five workers have rejected union membership.
• The Illinois Federation of Teachers claims on its website to have more than 100,000 members. But its most recent federal filing admits the truth: it has fewer than 89,000 members, with more than 11,000 workers rejecting union membership.

New BLS data confirms the trend: workers aren’t happy with union representation. And that is because of unions’ failure to prioritize spending on their own members. Just 21% of AFSCME Council 31’s spending in 2024 was on “representational activities.”

State and local government employees interested in joining the thousands of other Illinois public employees who have opted out of their unions can learn more at LeaveMyUnion.com.