In the previous blog – First Estimates of Trade Union membership in 2019  – we discussed the change in trade union (TU) membership by gender between 2001 and 2019 in the United Kingdom for employees. In this blog, we shall analyse changes in TU membership by employment status and gender for the same period using changes in TU density, employment, and the composition of the workforce for our analysis.

The data source for this analysis is the Office of National Statistics (ONS) labour force survey (LFS) Oct-Dec for the years 2001-2019.

Fig 1: Changes in Trade Union Membership by Gender and Employment Status 2001-2019.

Source: ONS LFS

From Fig 1, we can see that full-time (FT) male TU membership declined by just over one million, a decline of 28 per cent. During the same period, there was an expansion in female TU membership of 201,000, a nine per cent growth.

Part-time TU male membership grew by 67,408 an increase of 50.3 per cent. At the same time, female TU membership increased by134,665 a growth rate of 12.0 per cent.

Fig 2, shows the change in employment status by gender between 2001 and 2019. Male FT employment increased by 904,377 a growth rate of 8.0 per cent. At the same time, PT male employment grew by 49.0 per cent an increase of 522,448.

Fig 2: Change in employment by gender and employment status 2001-2019.

Source: ONS LFS

Female FT employment increased significantly by 1,745,950 a 26.0 per cent increase. At the same time, female PT employment climbed by 259,924 a rise of 5.1 per cent.

In Fig 3, we show the changes in the composition of employees by gender and employment status between 2001-2019. The male FT composition declined by 2.6 per cent from 47.0 to 44.4 per cent. Conversely, the male PT composition of the workforce increased by 1.3 per cent from 4.4 to 5.7 per cent.  During the same period, the female structure increased by 2.9 per cent to 30.6 per cent. There was a slight decline in the female PT composition of 1.7 per cent from 20.9 to 19.3 per cent.

Fig 3: Changes in the Composition of Employees by Gender and Employment Status 2001-2019

Source: ONS LFS

By using the composition of employees, it has allowed us to identify precisely that the significant change in TU membership has been in male FT membership. This decline of 1.01m FT male TU members has to assessed in the context of the 0.9m jobs created. Even without the 0.9m increase in male FT employment, the TU density would have been 23.5, resulting in an 8.9 decline in density to 22.5.

In future blogs, we will look in more detail at where this 1.01m decline FT male members occurred.