Trade Union Membership Rate Down In 2013

There approximately 6.5m employees trade union members in 2013 according to the Department for Business, Industry and Skills (BIS). The level more or less is unchanged from 2012 with a slight reduction of 6,000 over the year but is well below the highest point of 13m in 1979.

The number of employees increased between 2012 and 2013 and the membership rate fell slightly to 25.6% in 2013. It is the lowest rate of membership between 1995 and 2013. The percentage of employees who were trade union members has fallen from 32.4% in 1995.

Private sector trade union membership fell from 3.4m in 1995 to 2.5m in 2010. The trend seems to be reversing since then with a third consecutive year of increased membership in 2013 of 61,000 to 2.6m. In the public sector levels fell to 3.8m in 2013 from 3.9m in 2012. Membership density also decreased from 56.3% to 55.4%.

Trade Union Membership 2009

The rate of union membership for UK employees in 2009 was 27.4% the same as 2008 according to a National Statistics survey published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Membership fell at about the same rate as total employment over the year. The rate for all people in employment including the self-employed was 24.7% in 2009 from 24.9% in 2008. The number of employees who are trade union members fell by 163,000 or 2.4% to 6.7 million. For all in employment, the number of members fell by 165,000 to 7.1 million or by 2.3%.

The number of female union members increased 0.2% to 29.5% but the number of males fell by 0.4% to 25.2%. Female union density was higher than males for the eighth year in a row. Both public and private sector membership fell by about 0.5%. The private sector fell to 15.1% and the public sector to 56.6% in 2009.

The nations of the UK had varying union densities. The highest density was in N. Ireland with 39.9%, Wales had 35.4%, Scotland had 31.8% and England had the lowest union density with 26.1%. London had the largest decrease in density with 2.2%, Yorkshire and Humberside came next down 0.9% and the East Midlands with 0.4%.

Taking all sectors into account 46.6% of employees worked in a workplace with a trade union presence in 2009. About a third of emplyees said their pay and conditions were affected by collective agreements. Collective agreements covered about 20% of private sector employees and 68.1% of public sector employees in 2009, a fall of 2.4% on 2008.