BACK TO HOME PAGE

EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 27 - Page 9

Stats and Facts

EIRO labour surveys compare EU to USA and Japan

Three new surveys by research body the European Industrial Relations Observatory cover a wide range of topics in industrial relations and trade union organisation. They compare the current situation in the EU with that in the United States and Japan with regard to subjects such as part time working, trade union membership and employers’ associations, taking into account gender and occupation. From these comprehensive reports we illustrate two sets of statistics below.

Scandinavians come top as EU still ahead on union membership
Despite decreases in some EU countries in recent years and the accession of new members where union penetration fell dramatically after the fall of communism, the density of membership (as a proportion of the working population) remains higher in Europe than in the USA and Japan. The switch from manufacturing to services throughout the developed world has hit unions hard with only limited areas like Scandinavia, where more women than men are now in unions, bucking the trend.
TUDensityChart
No figure available for France, believed to be low
Trade union density: Europe, Japan & USA, 2002
<>
Worldwide increase in part time working

The surveys show that part time working is roughly at the same level in Europe, the USA and Japan but this masks big differences between different EU members. It is nearly ten times more common in the Netherlands than in Greece but is less so in the accession countries. All developed countries have seen an increase in 'atypical' working in the last few years though there has been a slight reduction in the USA as their economy has boomed.

Extent of part-time work in Europe, Japan and USA (% of employment)


TOTAL

MEN

WOMEN

COUNTRY

2002

1992

2002

1992

2002

1992








Japan

14.3

--

--

--

--

--

USA

17.5

--

--

--

--

--

EU15

18.2

14.2

6.6

4.2

33.5

28.8

Austria

18.9

12.6

5.1

3.6

35.7

24.5

Belgium

19.4

12.7

5.9

2.3

37.7

28.9

Denmark

20.6

23.0

11.0

10.7

31.4

37.1

Finland

12.4

10.4

8.0

7.3

17.1

13.7

France

16.2

13.1

5.0

3.8

29.7

25.2

Germany

20.8

14.5

5.8

2.7

39.5

30.9

Greece

4.5

4.5

2.3

2.6

8.1

8.1

Ireland

16.6

9.1

6.5

3.8

30.5

18.7

Italy

8.6

5.5

3.7

2.5

16.7

11.2

Luxembourg

11.7

6.5

1.8

1.0

26.4

16.2

Netherlands

43.8

34.8

21.5

15.2

72.8

64.4

Portugal

11.3

7.2

7.1

4.1

16.4

11.1

Spain

8.0

6.0

2.6

2.2

17.0

13.8

Sweden

21.4

20.5

11.2

6.8

32.9

36.0

UK

25.0

22.9

9.4

6.3

33.5

28.8

 

Back to

Forward to

Up to

FRONT PAGE

NEXT PAGE

TOP OF THIS PAGE