UNION GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT TRENDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1964–1970
| Published date | 01 November 1972 |
| Author | George Sayers Bain,Robert Price |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1972.tb00593.x |
| Date | 01 November 1972 |
UNION GROWTH AND EMPLOYMENT TRENDS
IN
THE
UNITED KINGDOM, 1964-1970
GEORGE SAYERS
BAIN*
AND
ROBERT
PRICE^
IN
an earlier paper1 the industrial and occupational composition of the
labour force and union membership were examined with particular refer-
ence to the white-collar sector in private industry between 1948 and 1964.
The purpose of this article is to bring up to date the picture presented by
the earlier paper.
LABOUR FORCE
TRENDS
The
Economy as a
Whole
The most striking labour force trend revealed by the earlier paper was
the growth
of
white-collar employment between 1911 and 1961. Table 1
shows that this trend has continued unabated, the average annual rate of
increase in the number of white-collar employees between 1961 and the
most recently published Census of 1966 being approximately the same as
that between 1951 and 1961. As a result the proportion of the labour force
in white-collar occupations increased from 35.9 per cent in 1961 to 38.3
per cent in 1966. The gradual decline in the absolute number of manual
workers which occurred between 1931 and 1961 was halted, and between
1961 and 1966 there was a slight increase. Nevertheless, their relative share
of total employment declined further, from 59.3 per cent in 1961 to 58.3
per cent in 1966. The remaining section of the labour force, the employers
and proprietors, continued to decline in both absolute and relative terms.
Occupational composition.
Although clerks are still the largest single white-
collar group, their rate of increase has been slowing down. By contrast,
the rate of increase since 1951 in the number
of
higher and lower profes-
sionals has been considerably greater than that
of
clerks. The more dis-
aggregated classification of professional occupations presented in Table
2
indicates that although scientists and engineers and laboratory technicians
continued to increase quite rapidly between 1961 and 1966, the numbers
of
draughtsmen declined in both absolute and relative terms during this
period.a
*
Deputy Director, S.S.R.C. Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick
t
Research Associate, S.S.R.C. Industrial Relations Research Unit, University
of
Warwick
George Sayers Bain, 'The Growth of White-collar Unionism In Great Britain',
British
Journal
of
Industrial Relations,
Vol.
IV,
No.
3,
November
1966,
pp.
304-35
a
This decline should be interpreted with caution since there has been a proliferation ofjob
titles resulting from
the
increasingly specialized nature
of
the design function in industry. It is
possible that people who have previously referred
to
themselves
aa
draughtsmen
now
refer to
366
UNION
GROWTH
AND
EMPLOYMENT
TRENDS
IN
THE
UK,
1964-1970
367
Sex composition.
The earlier paper pointed to the large and growing
proportion of women in white-collar occupations. Table
3
reveals that in
1911 women accounted for very similar proportions of both the white-
collar and manual labour forces. By 1966 the proportion of women in
white-collar jobs had risen to 46.5 per cent while it had fallen to 29.0
per cent in the manual group.
Manufacturing Industries
The labour force trends revealed in the economy as
a
whole are gener-
ally mirrored in the manufacturing sector as demonstrated by Tables
4
to
7.
The proportion of white-collar employment continued to increase
not only in manufacturing as
a
whole but also in each individual manu-
facturing industry. While clerical occupations are still the largest single
white-collar group in manufacturing, Table 6 indicates
a
general decrease
in their relative importance since 1964. Draughtsmen have also declined in
relative importance. In contrast, foremen, scientists, and technicians have
increased their share of white-collar employment.
As
in the economy as
a whole, women form
a
significant proportion of the manufacturing white-
collar labour force. But Table
7
shows
that this proportion declined slightly
between 1964 and 1968.
UNION
MEMBERSHIP
TRENDS
Viewed over the long-run, the growth of British trade unionism charted
in Table 8 can be briefly summarized. There was a steady growth in both
absolute numbers and in density
up
to 1920; this was followed by
a
sub-
stantial slump which bottomed in 1933 with aggregate density at 22.6 per
cent. There was then another upsurge, peaking in 1948 at
45.2
per cent,
the same as it had been at the 1920 peak.
From
1948 onwards
a
period of
gradual decline set in, with aggregate density dropping to around 42 per
cent in 1962 where it stabilized for
a
few years. Since 1968, a new period of
union growth appears to have begun. There have been substantial in-
creases in the absolute numbers
of
union members and, against
a
back-
ground
of
a
shrinking labour force,3 even more impressive density gains.
Impact of Employment Patterns
The earlier paper was primarily concerned to identify the major
causes
of
the decline in union density from 1948 onwards. The first reason
advanced was the changing industrial pattern
of
employment. Table
9
themselves by a new job title
(e.g.,
planning engineer, methods engineer,
or
technical author)
and are consequently placed in a different occupational group in the Census.
For
an
analysis of the reasons
for
this
see
'The Fall In The Working Population Since
1966',
Employment
and Productivity Gazettc,
LXXVIII, June 1970, pp.
492-51
1.
A
large part of the
fall was due
to
increased numbers in full-time education; most
of
the remainder consisted of
persons below
a
e
25
or
above the retirement
age,
for whom falls in activity rates an
to
be
expected in confitions of economic depression.
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