Unemployed workers are twice as likely to receive unemployment benefits if they live in high-union-density states than if they live in low-union-density states: Average UI recipiency rate (2023–2025) in high-, medium-, and low-union-density states
| UI recipiency rate | |
|---|---|
| Low | 18.0% |
| Medium | 22.2% |
| High | 36.6% |
Notes: The UI recipiency rate in each state is the share of unemployed workers who are receiving unemployment insurance benefits through the state’s regular UI program. We use a simple average of UI recipiency rates within the high-, medium-, and low-union-density state groupings. Union density is defined as the share of workers in the state who are members of a union based on the variable “unmem” from EPI extracts of CPS-ORG microdata.
Sources: EPI analysis of 2023–2025 Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group (CPS-ORG) microdata for all workers ages 16 and older; Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration, Unemployment Insurance Data Chartbook.
This chart appears in:
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