According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provisional estimates, in July 2003 the seasonally adjusted civilian labor force in Missouri numbered 2,978,000, with approximately 165,700 workers unemployed, yielding an unemployment rate of 5.6%, compared to the national average of 6.2% for the same period. Since the beginning of the BLS data series in 1978, the highest unemployment rate recorded was 10.6% in April 1983. The historical low was 2.9% in January 2000. In 2001, an estimated 6.9% of the labor force was employed in construction; 13.8% in manufacturing; 6.8% in transportation, communications, and public utilities; 19.5% in trade; 6.1% in finance, insurance, and real estate; 24.9% in services; 13.2% in government; and 2.6% in agriculture.
As early as the 1830s, journeyman laborers and mechanics in St. Louis, seeking higher wages and shorter hours, banded together to form trade unions and achieved some of their demands. Attempts to establish a workingman's party were unsuccessful, however, and immigration during subsequent decades ensured a plentiful supply of cheap labor. Union activity increased in the 1870s, partly because of the influence of German socialists. The Knights of Labor took a leading role in the labor movement from 1879 to 1887, the year that saw the birth of the St. Louis Trades and Labor Assembly; one year later, the American Federation of Labor came to St. Louis for its 3rd annual convention, with Samuel Gompers presiding. The Missouri State Federation of Labor was formed in 1891, at a convention in Kansas City. By 1916, the state had 915 unions. Union activity in Missouri declined in the 1990s and early 2000s. The US Department of Labor reported that in 2002, 332,000 of Missouri's 2,514,000 employed wage and salary workers were members of unions. This represented 13.2% of those so employed, down from 14.2% in 2001. The national average is 13.2%. In all, 366,000 workers (14.5%) were represented by unions. In addition to union members, this category includes workers who report no union affiliation but whose jobs are covered by a union contract.