Slight Rise in Union Membership In Private Sector Offsets Reductions In Public Sector

29th May 2014

Commenting on the latest annual trade union membership statistics, published on Wednesday 28th May 2014 by the Department for Business, TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said:"It's good to see union membership hold steady as private sector growth makes up for the big job cuts in local government, the civil service and the NHS.

"Unions deliver better pay, longer holidays, more training, safer workplaces, family-friendly jobs and decent pensions. That is because workers are stronger when they join together.

"And it is why we need stronger unions to secure the pay rises that workers across Britain need to share in the recovery."

Extracts From the Report -

Key findings
1. Trade Union Membership: Long term trends
Around 6.5 million employees in the UK were trade union members in 2013. The level of overall union members was broadly unchanged from 2012, with a reduction of only 6,000 over the year (a 0.1 per cent decline), but well below the peak of over 13 million in 1979.

The numbers of UK employees increased between 2012 and 2013. As a result, the membership rate fell slightly to 25.6 per cent in 2013, from 26 per cent in 2012. This is the lowest rate of trade union membership recorded between 1995 and 2013. Over this period, the proportion of employees who were trade union members in the UK has decreased around 7 percentage points, from 32.4 per cent in 1995.

2. Trade union membership: Public and private sectors
Union membership levels in the private sector fell from 3.4 million in 1995 to 2.5 million in 2010. 2013 data continued to show a reversal of this trend, with union membership levels in the private sector rising for the third consecutive year, an increase of 61 thousand in 2013 to 2.6 million.

The proportion of employees who were trade union members in the private sector was 14.4 per cent in 2013, unchanged from 2012, because the increase in union memberships kept pace with the rise in the number of private sector employees. In the public sector, union membership levels fell to 3.8 million in 2013 from 3.9 million in 2012. Trade union density decreased from 56.3 per cent to 55.4 per cent, reflective of the faster decline in unionised employment in the public sector over the year.

3. Trade union membership: Personal and job characteristics
Female employees are more likely to be a trade union member. The proportion of female employees who were in a trade union was around 28 per cent in 2013, compared with 23 per cent for male employees.

Trade union members are increasingly older employees. Over the eighteen years to 2013, the proportion of employees who belonged to a trade union has fallen in all age groups except those aged over 65. About 37 per cent of trade union member employees were aged over 50 in 2013, but only 27 per cent of employees are in this age group.

Employees in professional occupations are more likely to be trade union members than employees in other occupations. Employees in the professional occupations account for 37 per cent of all union members, but only 21 per cent of all employees in the UK worked in this sector.

A higher proportion of UK born employees are in trade union compared with non-UK born employees. About 27 per cent of UK born employees were in a trade union in 2013, compared with 18 per cent for non-UK born employees. Trade Union Membership 2013: Statistical Bulletin

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1. Long Term Trends
Trade union membership levels reached their peak in 1979 and declined sharply through the 1980s and early 1990s before stabilising from the mid 1990s onward. Despite the broad stability in membership levels between 1995 and 2007, the proportion of UK employees who were in the trade union declined because union membership levels did not keep pace with the increase in the total number of UK employees.

Trade union membership levels were broadly stable between 2012 and 2013 The number of trade union members was around 6.5 million, only 6 thousand fewer than in 2012 (a 0.1 per cent fall). The number of employees has grown, albeit only marginally, meaning that the membership rate has fallen slightly to 25.6 per cent in 2013 (26 per cent in 2012).

Lower level of public sector memberships offsets increase in private sector
Private sector memberships increased for a second successive year, while the falling trend in trade union numbers in the public sector started in 2009 continued.

To read the full report go to -
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/313768/bis-14-p77-trade-union-membership-statistical-bulletin-2013.pdf

Image - Trade union membership levels in UK from 1892 to 2013
Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics; Department for Employment
(1892-1973); Certification Office (1974-2011).