The Swiss job market is expected to weaken slightly at the start of this year, but overall it should perform well in the coming quarters, economists predict.
The Swiss Institute for Economic Research (KOF) Employment Indicator fell slightly in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the previous quarter, it reported on Monday.
However, the situation on the Swiss labour market remains positive, said KOF experts from the institute that belongs to the federal technology institute ETH Zurich.
It noted that most survey respondents “still consider their current staffing levels to be too low”.
“The indicator for the current and coming quarters suggests that employment in Switzerland will remain strong,” it added.
But most manufacturing businesses surveyed said that their current staffing levels were too high and that they were planning to reduce their workforces over the coming months. The employment outlook for this sector over the next three months has continued to deteriorate since the previous quarter.
The retail trade, hotels and catering, and insurance sectors also face a deteriorating outlook in the coming quarters, the KOF survey said.
The survey is based on the replies of around 4,500 companies asked in January 2024 about their employment plans.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Pope was a person full of respect: Swiss president
This content was published on
Swiss president Karin Keller-Sutter, who is attending the funeral of Pope Francis, says the pontiff was always full of respect.
Ex-sect member sentenced in Zurich for sexual abuse
This content was published on
Zurich District Court has sentenced a former member of the globally active sect "Children of God" to a partial prison sentence.
SNB chairman does not rule out slowdown in Swiss growth
This content was published on
Martin Schlegel, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), does not rule out a weakening of the Swiss economy in light of the tariff dispute.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.