Unemployment remains at a low level in Switzerland
Published: Thursday, Jul 4th 2024, 12:00
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Unemployment in Switzerland remains at a very low level, even if the figures have worsened somewhat compared to the previous year. While the service sector is still desperately looking for staff in some areas, clouds are gathering in industry.
As reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on Thursday, the unemployment rate across Switzerland was 2.3% in June and slightly higher at 2.4% if seasonal effects are excluded. This means that the rates have not moved from the previous month.
Seco even recorded a decline in the number of unemployed: At the end of June, 104,518 people were registered as unemployed at the regional employment centers (RAV), 947 fewer than in May. In addition, almost 1,500 fewer people were looking for a job at the RAVs.
Year-on-year increase
However, a further look back reveals that the situation on the Swiss labor market is deteriorating. Since June 2023, the number of unemployed people has risen by almost 20,000 and the number of jobseekers by a good 24,300. At that time, the unemployment rate was at a record low of 1.9% and 2.0% on an adjusted basis.
Initially in the autumn and then since this spring, the seasonally adjusted figures in the unemployment statistics have risen slightly, explained Oliver Schärli, Head of the Labor Market and Unemployment Insurance Division at Seco, in a telephone conference. This was particularly the case in the mechanical, electrical and metal industries (MEM).
Schärli assumes that the employment situation in the industrial sector will remain subdued for the time being and will not improve until next year at the earliest. In June, the unadjusted unemployment rate in the industrial sector was also at an elevated level of 2.7%.
Thanks to the continued high demand for labor in the service sector, the overall picture remains positive. Seco expects the unemployment rate to average 2.4% in 2024 as a whole, rising only slightly to 2.6% in the following year.
Storms lead to short-time working
One indicator of the state of the Swiss economy and labor market is short-time work. However, Seco provides definitive data on this with a time delay. In April, the number of people affected by short-time work fell significantly by 1920 to 3766 compared to March. And with just under 200 companies, around a quarter fewer companies were on short-time working.
However, the pendulum of short-time work can quickly swing in the opposite direction. After all, according to Schärli, Seco approved applications for short-time work for around 16,500 employees in June. And recently, the number of applications skyrocketed in the wake of the devastating floods in Ticino and Valais, for example.
However, it remains to be seen how many employees will ultimately be put on short-time working by the companies, Schärli pointed out. This would depend on the duration of the business interruption and also on when the clean-up work could begin. In similar cases in the past, employees were needed back in the company at an early stage.
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