Swiss job market: Unabated growth since the end of 2015

The Swiss job market has been growing almost unabated since 2015 - one sign that the economy is doing well. For example, the Adecco Group Swiss Job Market Index is 6 percent higher in the third quarter of 2018 than it was in the fall of last year. Compared to last quarter, the index remains stable, up 2 percent. Adjusted for seasonal effects, there is an increase of only 1 percent compared to the previous quarter. Nicole Burth, CEO of Adecco Group Switzerland, adds: "Overall, the positive trend observed since the end of 2015 continues."

High demand for personnel in organizational and management professions

After the number of job advertisements in the occupations of management and organization (e.g. business, division, project managers, organization specialists) has risen sharply in the last three quarters, demand remains high in this quarter as well. Compared to last year's quarter, job postings in these professions have increased by 25 percent. "According to the report, Switzerland is currently investing in management and organization. The reason for this could be the increasingly interconnected and volatile business world, where project-based business processes and consequently trained personnel in the professions of management and organization are in demand," explains Jan Müller from the Job Market Monitor at the University of Zurich. "Since new projects often include an important digital component or are accompanied by automation, it is not surprising that the demand for IT personnel has increased at the same time," adds Nicole Burth. Thus, a year-on-year comparison also shows a remarkable increase in the number of job advertisements (+15%) in the IT professions (e.g. programmer, application developer, system engineer). Since the beginning of 2017, a positive trend has been observed in IT occupations. A year-on-year increase can also be observed in industrial and transport occupations (+12%). This quarter's increase is due in part to increased demand for skilled workers in the metal and electrical industries. As number 1 in the Global Innovation Index ranking[1], Switzerland is particularly innovative. Within Switzerland, innovation rates are particularly high in the areas of information and communications technology and the mechanical and electrical engineering industries, among others[2]. "These innovations give us an international competitive advantage, which favors the creation of new jobs in the professional groups of information technology and industry," adds Burth.

Lake Geneva region: peak reached?

Year-on-year growth in the number of job advertisements in the Lake Geneva region is again above average. In the third quarter of 2018, companies in this region posted 21 percent more job ads than in the third quarter of the previous year. However, after three consecutive quarters of above-average growth in personnel demand, a comparison with the summer quarter of 2018 (-1%) now shows that this trend will not continue, at least for the time being. In Eastern Switzerland (+9%) and Espace Mittelland (+8%), the number of advertised vacancies has also grown compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The other regions show only comparatively small changes in the number of job advertisements. The number of vacancies is comparatively stable in Northwestern Switzerland (+4%), Central Switzerland (+3%) and Greater Zurich (+1%).

Compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year, the Lake Geneva Region demand in the industrial and construction occupations was particularly strong (+64%). This strong increase in industrial and construction occupations has been observed for more than two years. "The increase is partly due to the less strong franc. In the Lake Geneva region, labor demand in these occupations suffered particularly badly in the wake of the 2015 franc shock. However, with the strong increase over the past two years, personnel demand in the industrial and construction occupations has now caught up. In the meantime, the index of the number of vacancies has returned to a similar level as in other occupational groups," adds Jan Müller. The other occupational groups are also in greater demand in the Lake Geneva region: the occupational groups of engineering and IT (+29%), business services (+17%) and personal and social services (+10%) have all seen growth in job advertisements.

Boom Region Eastern Switzerland

In German-speaking Switzerland, demand for personnel in the Eastern Switzerland increased the most (+9%). "Eastern Switzerland reached its low point since the start of comparable measurement (end of 2014) at the beginning of 2016. Since then, the number of advertised jobs has recovered. It is now back at a similar level to the end of 2014," Müller elaborates. The increase in the number of job advertisements compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year is primarily attributable in eastern Switzerland to an increase in demand for personnel in business services occupations (+16%) and in engineering and IT occupations (+12%).

Source: Adecco