The Labor Department reported Friday that union membership fell marginally in the last year, dropping to 10.5 percent of the workforce, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous year. In absolute terms, there were 14.7 million people in unions, roughly the same number as the previous year.

Total private sector union membership was up about 18,000 people in the last year. That increase, however, was not sufficient to increase membership relative to the workforce.