Blog
Trade union membership still concentrated in the public sector
Jim Riley
10th September 2012
Some useful stats here on trade union membership in the UK - albeit from the Telegraph's Deputy Political Editor (so the data comes alongside some political comment and opinion).
Some of the key statistics quoted:
- 26 per cent of employees in the UK are union members, down from 26.6 per cent in 2010.
- 6.4 million people are union members, down 143,000 in a year.
- Union membership in the private sector has actually risen, by 43,000 to 2.51 million. That goes against the trend of gradual declines seen for most of the last decade.
- Public sector membership has started to fall - down by 186,000 to 3.88 million. Public sector union membership peaked at 4.11 million in 2009. However, the proportion of public sector staff in a union actually rose slightly, to 56.5 per cent.