UK: Union membership continues gradual decline

The UK The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has published statistics on trade union membership in 2015. The proportion of the working population that were union members fell slightly from 25% to 24.7% – well down from 32.4% in 1995 when records began. In the private sector union membership also continued to fall from 14.2% to 13.9%. Membership now remains heavily concentrated amongst women, older workers, those in middle-income professional jobs, working for larger employers, in full-time and permanent positions and born in the UK. However, one of the lowest union densities is to be found in companies categorized as “professional, scientific or technical activities”.

Return to all news stories