Writers, actors, nurses, auto workers, baristas, pharmacists, graduate students ever since 2023s hot labor summer began, it seems like workers all over the country have been walking off the job to demand more of their bosses. But are we really seeing a resurgence of the strike weapon?

By several measures, yes, we are. More U.S. workers are going on strike now than have in years, and many are winning big raises and other gains from their employers, which helps fuel strikes elsewhere. But the numbers need to be put in the broader context of a long-term decline in U.S. work stoppages following decades of de-unionization.

One eye-popping statistic making the rounds suggests workers are striking in levels not seen in decades: the number of days idle due to work stoppages. That figure accounts for both how many workers have gone on strike and for how long.

Through September, there were 11.2 million lost days of work due to strikes involving at least a thousand workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Even with three months to go, that is the most lost days of work in a single year since 2000.

But the bulk of 2023s strike days roughly 80% come courtesy of the SAG-AFTRA strike in Hollywood, which is both huge (involving 160,000 actors) and long-running (now at more than three months).

Still, even excluding this one massive work stoppage, there have been more strike days already in 2023 than any year since 2018 and 2019, when public-school teachers were walking off the job in massive numbers. This years lost work days are also already greater than most years going back to the 1990s, according to BLS figures.

Another, more detailed data set shows a recent surge in strike activity. Unlike the federal government, the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations has been tracking strikes of all sizes , including those involving just a handful of workers, like those at Starbucks cafes, since 2021.

The schools data from Jan. 1 through Oct. 11 shows a marked increase in the number of workers involved in strikes: from 47,700 workers during that period in 2021, to 126,800 in 2022, all the way up to 468,500 this year.

The 325 strikes during that period this year is a slight decrease from the 345 last year, but this years work stoppages overall are much larger. Along with the actors strike, some of the biggest recent strikes include hotel workers in Los Angeles (20,000), health care workers at hospital giant Kaiser Permanente (75,000) and auto workers at Ford, General Motors and Jeep parent company Stellantis (34,000).

Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and project director for Cornells Labor Action Tracker, said this considerable uptick was particularly notable because of what parts of the economy were affected.

The last time you saw this number of workers on strike was 2018 and 2019, and that was largely driven by red-state teacher strikes, Kallas said, alluding to the Red for Ed strikes in states like West Virginia and Oklahoma . The difference here is this is really rooted in the private sector and certain industries. Thats certainly a major change weve seen this year compared to the last several years.

The Cornell data is valuable not only because its more expansive than that of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but because it also includes more details on each strike, including workers stated demands. Last years strikes were driven predominantly by no surprise pay. But many also stemmed from health and safety concerns as well as a frustration with staffing levels, according to Cornells annual report .