In the second quarter of 2023, the number of people employed increased by 2.9 percent and the unemployment rate (ILO) fell to 3.7 percent.
Employment in Switzerland: In the second quarter of 2023, Switzerland had 5.303 million people employed, or 2.9 percent more than in the same period in 2022. Among them, the number of men increased by 2.6 percent, while the number of women increased by 3.2 percent.
In terms of full-time equivalents (FTEs), the increase between the second quarters of 2022 and 2023 was 2.6 percent (men: +2.1 percent; women: +3.3 percent). Between the first and second quarters of 2023, once seasonally adjusted, the number of employed people advanced by 0.9 percent and the number of FTEs by 0.5 percent.
Swiss and foreign workers
Between the second quarter of 2022 and the same quarter of 2023, the number of people employed increased for both Swiss nationals (+1.9%) and foreign nationals (+4.8%).
Among foreign employed persons, the increase was 9.8 percent for those holding a short-term residence permit (L permit, in Switzerland for less than 12 months), 8.4 percent for those holding a residence permit (B or L permit, in Switzerland for at least 12 months), 5.8 percent for cross-border commuters (G permit) and 1.5 percent for those holding a settlement permit (C permit).
Unemployment in Switzerland and Europe
In the second quarter of 2023, there were 186,000 unemployed people in Switzerland as defined by the ILO, or 15,000 fewer than a year earlier. These unemployed people accounted for 3.7 percent of the working population, which is a lower share than that observed in the second quarter of 2022 (4.1 percent).
When seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2023, from 4.1 to 3.9 percent. Between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate contracted both in the EU, from 6.1 to 5.9 percent, and in the eurozone (ZE20: from 6.7 to 6.4 percent).
Youth unemployment
In Switzerland, between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023, the youth unemployment rate (young people aged 15 to 24) under the ILO decreased from 6.9 to 6.4 percent. Over the same time frame, it contracted in both the EU (from 14.2 to 14.0 percent) and the eurozone (ZE20: from 14.3 to 13.9 percent).
Unemployment according to various characteristics
Between the second quarters of 2022 and 2023, the unemployment rate under the ILO dropped for both men (from 3.8 to 3.6 percent) and women (from 4.4 to 3.8 percent). The reduction was greater for those aged 25 to 49 (from 3.9 to 3.4 percent) than for those aged 50 to 64 (from 3.8 to 3.5 percent).
This rate decreased both for those without post-compulsory education (from 8.4 to 7.9 percent) and for those with secondary II level education (from 3.7 to 3.2 percent) or tertiary level education (from 3.0 to 2.8 percent). It increased from 3.1 to 2.6 percent for Swiss nationals and from 6.8 to 6.5 percent for foreign nationals. In the second quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate under ILO stood at 4.3 percent among people from EU/EFTA countries and 11.7 percent among those from non-EU countries.
Duration of unemployment
In the second quarter of 2023, the number of long-term unemployed people under the ILO (one year or more) stood at 71,000, down 18,000 from the second quarter of 2022.
The share of long-term unemployed people in the total number of unemployed people declined from 44.3 to 38.3 percent. The median duration of unemployment shortened from 280 to 210 days.
