Conversely, most of the industries in which unions enjoy a strong presence have experienced weak or even negative employment growth. In Canada, net job creation is now heavily concentrated in service industries. Services account for upwards of 70 percent of Canadian GDP and for about three-quarters of paid employment. A second trend that is hurting unions is the migration of jobs toward smaller firms. Compared to larger enterprises, small companies are harder for unions to organize and much costlier to service.
International data show a strong, positive correlation between unionization and average plant size.
Understandably, unions find it easier to organize a single, 500-person operation than ten separate plants each having 50 workers. Most of these are non-union operations and are likely to stay that way. Smaller firms are where the prospects for future job growth are most promising - a fact that bodes ill for unions. Knowledge workers often have little or no experience with, or affinity for unions. Outside of the broadly defined public sector, unions have had limited success organizing knowledge workers.