3,000 jobs created in worker cooperatives in France
In 2014, 2,800 jobs were created, including 1,940 in new worker cooperatives in France, according to the latest figures from the French confederation of worker cooperatives CG Scop. “We are very pleased with the results in 2014, we are very optimist. In 2014, 277 cooperatives have emerged. Whereas ex nihilo creations remain the majority, there is a record for transmissions of healthy enterprises: 20% of worker cooperatives created last year were the result of a transmission”, says Patrick Lenancker, president of CG Scop.
This entrepreneurial model concerns all sectors of activity, which over the years have become more diversified. Nearly 46% of the cooperatives are active in the service sector, 18% in construction and public works and 14% in industry, followed closely by commerce and “education, health and social action”.
Half of cooperatives creations are being made in services, which account for some 1 230 worker and social cooperatives and 18,300 jobs. In addition, this entrepreneurial model displays a 3-year survival rate of 76% against 71% for all French companies. At 5 years, the rate is 64% against 50% for all French companies, revealing an overall greater economic strength.
Saving jobs: the first transitional worker cooperative in France The Law on Social Economy adopted on 31 July 2014 in France created the figure of the transitional worker cooperative. It has been designed to facilitate the gradual transfer of healthy SMEs to their employees. At Couëron, near Nantes, the leaders of an industrial mechanics SME in full health, Delta Meca, have been the first entrepreneurs to apply, as of June, this innovative system.