Right to Work Making an Impact?

Early statistics indicate that Indiana’s passage of Right to Work legislation is already showing benefits to the state, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).

The IDEC has reported that 91 companies have told the agency that Right to Work has been a factor in their decision-making process on the location of new projects. Out of that group, the IEDC says that 64 are well along in the development process and are projected to have the potential of more than 8,390 new jobs and more than $2.7 billion in investments if they come to fruition.

The IEDC report also indicates that 39 companies have committed to new projects in the state since RTW which should produce more than 4,500 new jobs and an investment of more than $1.6 billion. Information from the IDEC can be found in the latest issue of BizVoice published by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce which is available here.

In addition, statistics recently released by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicate that the percentage of Indiana workers who are members of unions dropped from 11.3% in 2011 to 9.1% in 2012. In actual numbers, the number of union members dropped from 302,000 to 246,000. The percentage of workers represented by unions dropped from 12.4% to 10.0%. Those numbers cover both private and public sector employees. The BLS statistics can be reviewed here.

Nationally, the BLS annual report found that 11.3 percent of wage and salary workers were members of a union in 2012, down from 11.8 percent in 2011. The total number of workers belonging to a union also declined, down to 14.4 million from 14.8 million.

• RELATED TOPICS
• IEDC