Job postings fall by 27% due to pandemic

A hotel in Zurich: there are a lot less jobs going in this sector right now. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

New job offers have dropped by over a quarter in Switzerland due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with hotel, restaurant, and personal services sectors worst hit.

Between April and June, job postings went down by 27%, the human resources firm Adecco Switzerland reported on Tuesday.

Anna von Ow, a University of Zurich researcher who worked on the report, said the collapse in new postings is much worse than in previous crises, including the 2008-2009 financial crisis, when the impact was less sudden.

“Practically all areas of social, economic and cultural life ceased operating overnight,” she said.

Though all sectors have been impacted, hotel, restaurant and personal services sectors have been worst hit; they saw a drop of 39%. Business, sales, office administration, and management were all hit hard as well (-35%), despite the opportunities brought up by teleworking.

Natural sciences, construction, and maintenance were least affected (-18%).

Geographically, the regions around Lake Geneva, as well as the cantons of Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Jura and Bern were hardest hit, while eastern Switzerland held up better, Adecco reported.

Economic woes

Meanwhile, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) estimates that the average unemployment rate in 2020 will rise to 3.8%, one percentage point higher than last year.

And with a further rise to 4.1% predicted in 2021, unemployment offices around the country are currently getting ready for the new jobless wave by taking on new counsellors, Swiss public broadcaster RTS reported on Tuesday.

The overall economic situation has also been subject of predictions; the latest analysis, published Tuesday by the KOF economic institute, reckons that economic output could drop by 5% in 2020. Foreign investments are also set to plunge.

However, on the job posting front, at least, Monica Dell-Anna, Adecco Switzerland’s Director-General, said that even if the numbers of new positions being offered are low, they have stabilised since the first weeks of the lockdown. The “good news is that the hellish downturn has now stopped”, she said.