Strikes hit 23-year high last year, Labor Dept. says

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked 33 strikes and lockouts in 2023, according to its annual report of work stoppages, the largest number since 39 stoppages in 2000.

There was also a big uptick in the number of workers involved in those actions, to 458,900 from 120,600 in 2022.

The annual data marks a substantial jump from 2022, when BLS tracked 23 major strikes and lockouts involving more than 120,000 workers. It's also almost double the 20-year average of 16.7 work stoppages per year.

Strike activity had dropped off after 2020, but 2023 surpassed pre-pandemic levels of strikes and lockouts for the first time.

The education and health services sector made up 86.7 percent of the work stoppages last year. The majority were private-sector employees.

Experts have pointed to 2023 as a crucial year for the national labor movement, with large and high-profile strikes stoppages involving SAG-AFTRA, Kaiser Permanente, UAW, and the Los Angeles school district.

The BLS data includes any "major work stoppage" that involves more than 1,000 workers for a full shift or longer, not distinguishing between strikes and lockouts.

Another report tracking strikes, published recently by Cornell University and the University of Illinois, cited 470 work stoppages in 2023 with 539,000 workers involved. The researchers said that was a 9 percent increase from 2022, and that the number of workers involved grew by 141 percent due to large-scale strikes.

The Cornell and University of Illinois researchers argued that the BLS data excludes the “vast majority of strike activity," clouding an accurate reflection of workplace conflict for policymakers and experts. Before budget cuts in the 1980s, BLS detailed more specific information and included even smaller strikes in its reports.

Large labor disruptions have been decreasing for decades, since at least the 1980s, BLS data shows. The lowest annual total of major work stoppages was five in 2009 and the highest was 470 in 1952.