Fewer workers are joining unions

Union membership remains steady at 1.5 million but has fallen as a proportion of the Australian workforce.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus. Picture: AAP

Union membership remains steady at 1.5 million but has fallen as a proportion of the Australian workforce, declining to 14.6 per cent.

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data released yesterday shows 1.133 million full-time workers and 402,000 part-time workers were union members in August this year, a net 11,700 reduction from 2016.

However, the total number of full-time and part-time workers who were not in trade unions grew by 376,000 over two years to 8.374 million. As a proportion of the workforce, union membership fell from 15.3 per cent two years ago to 14.6 per cent.

While the ABS did not release a split between the private and public sectors, union membership in the private sector has been previously recorded at less than 10 per cent.

ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said union members were more likely to be over 40, ­female, and working full-time.

An estimated 800,000 union members were female and 735,000 union members were male.

The median earnings for employees who were union members in their main job were $1300 a week, compared with $1025 for employees who were not union members in their main job.

At 33 per cent, education and training was the industry with the highest proportion of employees who were union members. It was followed by public administration and safety at 30 per cent and electricity, gas, water and waste ser­vices at 29 per cent.

The proportion of employees in healthcare and transport who were union members was more than 20 per cent while construction, manufacturing and retail trade was about 12 to 13 per cent.

The occupations that recorded the highest proportion of employees who were union members were professionals with 21 per cent; machinery operators and drivers at 19 per cent and community and personal service workers at 18 per cent.