United Kingdom: annual report on the unionization rate

The unionization rate for British employees went from 29% to 28.4% between 2005 and 2006, a 0.6 point decrease which constitutes the strongest decrease since 1998, according to the Minister of Trade and Industry which has just published last year's official statistics. (Ref. 070366)
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For the third year in a row, the proportion of unionized women (29.7%, minus 0.2 points) is higher than that of men (27.2%, minus 0.9 points). Concerning geographical distribution, union density is higher in the north than in the south: Northern Ireland has the highest unionization rate (39.7 %), followed by Wales (35.9 %), Scotland (34.6%) and then England (27.2 %). The scheme is the same within British regions: southeastern England displays a 21.4 unionization as opposed to 38.9 in the Northe

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