A Note on the Trade Union Membership of Young Adults.

This article presents a survey to examine the unionization patterns of young adults in Great Britain. The data source for this analysis is from the Young Adults in the Labor Market report, completed by D. N. Ashton and M. J. Maguire for the Department of Employment. This note uses a new data source on young adults between the ages of 18- 24, to examine trade union membership patterns and influences on such patterns. The analysis shows that this institutional force is the reason why over half the sample does not join a trade union, making such forces far more important than has possibly been realized in the past. It is shown that young people are disproportionately located in those industries and occupations where trade unions are not available to the workforce. This leads to the lower levels of unionization amongst this age group previously noted by other workers. However, for young adults it should be emphasized that the form the process takes is the non-availability of trade unions at the place of work. This is made more noticeable by the analysis of those young adults who changed jobs, which shows that without this institutional block the level of unionization amongst young adults would be more than twice the level at which it currently stands.