Summary of the editorial from IDS Pay Report 976, May 2007

Trade union membership in the UK in 2006

The latest data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show a broadly stable picture of trade union density in the UK, after a long period of decline. While the most recent figures show a slight fall in the proportion of employees who are trade union members, this is against a backdrop of rising employment, especially in the private sector. The percentage of all employees in employment recorded as being trade union members fell from 26.2 in the third quarter of 2005 to 25.8 per cent in the final quarter of 2006, a decrease of 0.4 per cent. However, because of the significant growth in employment over the same period, although the density level may have fallen slightly, the actual numbers of workers who are reported as being trade union members remains steady, at just over 8 million. Over the same period, the percentage of women recorded as being members of a trade union remained exactly the same, at 28.1 per cent, and the percentage of public sector workers increased very slightly, from 58.6 to 58.8 per cent. For men, the overall percentage fell from 24.6 to 23.7 per cent.

... the full editorial can be read in IDS Pay Report 976