Swiss unemployment rate jumps in second quarter of 2024

The number of jobless reached 203,000 in the second quarter of this year, up by 15,000 year-on-year. This represents 4% of the working population, a rise of 0.3 percentage points.

Adjusted for seasonal variations, the proportion of unemployed rose by 0.1 percentage points in the second quarter, to 4.2%, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on Tuesday.

Unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 fell by 0.5 percentage points to 5.9%. Among the rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 3.7%.

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The FSO registered some 75,000 long-term unemployed, or 1,000 more than in the second quarter of 2023. However, the proportion of long-term jobless has fallen, from 39.3% to 37.2% of the total.

Part-time work is gaining ground, with some 1.9 million people in the second quarter, an increase of 57,000 year-on-year. Of this total, 269,000 were classified as underemployed because they wanted to work more. The underemployment rate reached 5.5%, compared with 5.3% in the second quarter of 2023.

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The statistics differ from those published monthly by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in that they follow the definition of the International Labour Office (ILO) and are comparable with those of other countries. SECO’s unemployment rate, calculated on the basis of registrations with regional employment offices (ORP), stood at 2.3% in July.

In the second quarter, the ILO-defined unemployment rate remained stable in the European Union and the eurozone, at 5.9% and 6.3% respectively, notes – by way of comparison – the FSO in its quarterly situation report.

Also in the second quarter, the number of employed people in Switzerland remained more or less stable (+0.5%) at 5.3 million.

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The number of men in work remained unchanged, while women rose by 1.2%. Statisticians noted a 0.1% increase in the number of employed persons in full-time equivalents, with the strongest increase among foreign workers (+3.2% to 1.8 million), while a slight fall was recorded among Swiss citizens (-0.8% to 3.5 million).

Adapted from French by DeepL/dos

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