Trend-spotters might have noticed that recent statistics on union activity have become predictable. In the first halves of the last three years, unions participated in an average of 75 strikes. By the midpoint of 2013, there were exactly—you guessed it—75 strikes.  

But let’s not forget, as we view this holding pattern, that this is the new normal—a very new normal—that marks a dramatic difference from the work stoppage scene of just a few years ago. Many labor and employment indicators are climbing their way up from the rock-bottom levels of the recession, but union strike activity doesn't appear to be one of them.

I've looked at the strike totals for each of the last 10 years, and found a steep dropoff in strike totals at the official onset of the recession, December 2007. That month, the number of strikes plummeted from 34 in November to just seven. There hasn't  been a monthly strike total that has even come close to 34 in the five and a half years since.

In fact, in the five and a half years from December 2007 to now, unions have called a total of 826 strikes. In the five and a half years preceding that month, unions called 1,692--more than twice that many!

It is interesting to note, however, that fewer strikes doesn’t necessarily mean smaller or shorter strikes. The average strike since December 2007 has idled 829 workers, while the average number for the comparable pre-recession period involved 577 workers.  And in both five-and-a-half-year periods, about six out of 10 strikes lasted longer than one week.