IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v78y2025i2p381-406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Changing Skill Content of Private-Sector Union Coverage

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Dodini
  • Michael Lovenheim
  • Alexander Willén

Abstract

Concurrent with the decline in private-sector unionization over the past half century, a shift has occurred in the type of work covered by unions. The authors take a skill-based approach to study this shift. For both men and women, private-sector unionized jobs have changed to require more non-routine, cognitive skills, and for women, less routine, manual skills. Union/non-union skill differences have grown, with unionized jobs requiring relatively more non-routine, cognitive skill and relatively more routine, manual and routine, cognitive skills. The authors decompose these changes into 1) changes in skills within an occupation, 2) changes in worker concentration across existing occupations, and 3) changes to the occupational mix from entry and exit. Most of the changes they document are driven by the second two forces. Finally, the article discusses how this evidence can be reconciled with a model of skill-biased technological change that directly accounts for the institutional framework surrounding collective bargaining.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Dodini & Michael Lovenheim & Alexander Willén, 2025. "The Changing Skill Content of Private-Sector Union Coverage," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 78(2), pages 381-406, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:78:y:2025:i:2:p:381-406
    DOI: 10.1177/00197939241264735
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00197939241264735
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00197939241264735?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:78:y:2025:i:2:p:381-406. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.