You know (of course you know) that the Nineteenth Conference of Labour Statisticians is taking place next month for ten days in Geneva. Ah, but do you know that the conference will also be discussing proposals so that employment and labour force statistics can cover the cooperative sector better?
There’s a broad feeling that the current ways that data are collected at national and international level on cooperative businesses aren’t up to scratch. As the report puts it, “It is often said that cooperatives are resilient in times of crisis and that they are essential for small enterprise development. Such statements, however, are drawn from ad hoc studies that cover a limited set of industries for a few countries. Only quantitative evidence that covers the whole economy for a large number of countries can verify that such statements are generally true. Unfortunately, statistics on cooperatives that have these characteristics are missing in most countries of the world.”
It will be interesting to see what emerges from the conference deliberations. The paper offering proposals is here.
Bibby on cooperatives 