New figures show that trade union membership went up by 91,000 in 2019.

This is the third year it's risen.

Keep it rising, join a union.

The number of women in trade unions rose by 169,000 between 2018 and 2019.

This is part of a trend: since the early 2000s, female employees are more likely than male employees to be trade union members.

This is membership as % of employees for men and women.

The percentage of employees who are trade union members by age has some sort-of positive signs when it comes to young workers.

Membership has remained stable for most young age groups since 2018, and shot up by 1.5 ppt (17 to 18.5%) among 25-29 year olds.

As we all know, the union movement undeniably needs more young workers.

Here's trade union membership by age in 1995 (first year of records) compared to 2019.

Already low membership among some younger age groups has almost halved.

Union membership has risen in both the public sector (+74,000) and the private sector (+17,000).

This is the first time in a few years, and only the third time since records began in 1995, that both have risen in the same year.

Any union membership data needs to be presented in the context of the long-run membership (which lags slightly behind , ending in 17/18, rather than 2019).

Today's data on increasing membership is promising, but there's still a way to go to get back to previous highs.