Tag Archive: Work

Migrant workers head back to Switzerland as Covid-19 restrictions end

2022-09-10

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2022-09-10

Switzerland has returned as a popular destination for foreigners looking for work after two years of Covid-19 restrictions. Over 75,000 people have immigrated to Switzerland so far in 2022, driven largely by an economic boom and unemployment levels falling to a 20-year low.

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Novartis job cuts to heavily impact management roles

2022-08-26

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2022-08-26

Of the 1,400 job cuts announced by the pharma giant in Switzerland, up to half of them will involve staff in leadership positions, the company said on Monday. For these executive roles, the consultation process has been finalised, and the first individuals concerned will be informed “in the coming weeks”, said the head of Novartis Switzerland Matthias Leuenberger at a media event in Zurich.

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Unions demand financial reward for efforts during Covid crisis

2021-09-08

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2021-09-08

The Trade Union Federation has called for a blanket salary rise for all employees as the Swiss economy recovers from the Covid-19 crisis.

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Almost half of Swiss workers choose early retirement

2021-05-04

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2021-05-04

On Tuesday, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) reported External linkthat in 2019 between 40-50% of people started receiving their pension from their so-called second pillar before the legal retirement age - 65 for men and 64 for women.

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Gender equality continues to make progress in Swiss workforce

2021-03-05

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2021-03-05

The proportion of women in Swiss company boardrooms and management ranks continues to rise, according to an annual survey of the largest employers in both private and public sectors.

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Charity works overtime to support Covid-stricken mountain firms

2021-01-07

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2021-01-07

A Swiss fund that supports small businesses in alpine regions bailed out 100 firms last year that were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Schweizer Berghilfe (Swiss Mountain Aid) doled out an extra CHF2 million ($2.26 million) to support Covid-hit enterprises.

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Traditional working model hampers Swiss women’s careers

2020-08-11

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2020-08-11

Swiss women are losing out when it comes to achieving managerial positions compared to their male colleagues and female peers from other countries. The common Swiss working model of women taking over childcare and men working full-time makes it harder for Swiss mothers to climb up the career ladder.

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Job postings fall by 27 percent due to pandemic

2020-06-26

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2020-06-26

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.

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Around 20,000 healthcare workers seek partial unemployment benefits

2020-04-04

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2020-04-04

With the ban on non-emergency surgeries and other procedures, some hospitals and medical practices are applying for partial unemployment support for at least 20,000 healthcare workers. On Thursday, the German language paper TagesAnzeiger reported that due to the social distancing restrictions and ban on non-urgent medical procedures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, some doctors and other healthcare professionals don’t have enough work.

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Unions say anti-EU initiative is bad for workers

2020-02-25

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2020-02-25

Trade unions have come out against the initiative to scrap the freedom of movement agreement with the European Union, saying a “yes” vote would be “an attack on all workers”. Accepting the right-wing proposal would lead to a situation whereby “collective agreements and wage checks would be replaced by an unfettered competition of all against all,” Swiss Trade Union Federation boss Pierre-Yves Maillard said on Monday.

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Foreign demand remains high for luxury Swiss-made watches

2020-01-29

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2020-01-29

Swiss watch manufacturers exported timepieces worth over CHF21 billion ($21.7 billion) last year – the industry’s third-best result ever. Watchmaking is Switzerland’s third-biggest export sector after pharmaceutical and machine tools. Almost 95% of production is sold abroad, the majority to Asia.

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Swiss unemployment drops to new low 

2020-01-12

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2020-01-12

The Swiss unemployment rate fell to 2.3% in 2019, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). That’s the lowest yearly rate for almost 20 years. SECO said in a statementexternal link on Friday that 106,932 people were registered with regional job centres in 2019, 9.5% less than in the previous year.

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Skilled worker shortage worsens in Switzerland

2019-11-30

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2019-11-30

The shortage of skilled workers on the Swiss job market has become even more acute this year, according to a survey. Finding suitable engineers, technical workers and fiduciaries is particularly difficult. The skilled worker shortage index(PDF), compiled annually by Adecco Switzerland in collaboration with the University of Zurich, measures the occupations in which the number of vacancies is particularly large compared with the number of job-seekers.

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Cross-border workers entering Switzerland set record in 2019

2019-11-13

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2019-11-13

The number of people from neighbouring countries commuting to Switzerland for work each day reached a record 325,000 this year. The increase was felt especially in cantons Ticino and Geneva. Following a slight drop in 2018, the Swiss job market is once again attracting cross-border workers in historically high numbers. Some 325,291 peopleexternal link entered the country each day in the third quarter of 2019, beating the previous record of 316,491...

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Swiss are skilled but not so dynamic, finds ranking

2019-10-10

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2019-10-10

Switzerland has slipped down a slot in the annual Global Competitiveness Index from the World Economic Forum (WEF). Having come in fourth in 2018, Switzerland now follows Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. The index covers 141 countries. The world economy is not ready for a major slowdown, warns WEF.

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Switzerland has the Highest Underemployment Rate in Europe

2019-07-24

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2019-07-24

Swiss Women Work Time
2018, 7% of Switzerland's workforce claimed they would like to work more. Women are the most affected. According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) figures publsihed on Tuesday, Switzerland’s labour pool has 830,000 people. This includes 356,000 underemployed individuals, 231,000 unemployed and 243,000 people who are looking for work but not available to start immediately.

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Survey: one in ten Swiss jobs is ‘low paid’

2019-07-17

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2019-07-17

Around 320,000 jobs in Switzerland are considered low paid, earning a gross monthly salary of under CHF4,335 ($4,400), according to the most recent nationwide statistics. In 2016, 12% of Swiss workers earned such a low monthly salary, the Federal Statistical Office (OFS) reported on Monday.

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Big pay gaps remain in Switzerland

2019-06-29

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2019-06-29

Large wage gaps continue by gender and within Switzerland’s largest 26 firms, according to two new surveys. According to the Federal Office for Statistics, the median gross salary of male full-time employees in Switzerland stood at CHF85,200 ($87,276) last year, while for full-time female employees it was CHF71,500 – a 19% pay gap.

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Older unemployed to get more help from government

2019-05-17

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2019-05-17

The government has announced measures to help Swiss-based workers have better access to the job market. Plans to help older people out of a job are also outlined. The measures, outlined on Wednesday by interior minister Alain Berset and justice minister Karin Keller-Sutter, are part of efforts to adapt to an ageing workforce and to new rules forcing employers to give priority to Swiss-based workers.

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Swiss teachers stretched thin with unpaid overtime work

2019-05-09

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2019-05-09

Swiss teachers are still working too much unpaid overtime, particularly in German-speaking Switzerland, according to a new survey by two major teachers’ associations. "Swiss teachers have the highest number of working hours of all OECD countries and work unpaid overtime for hundreds of millions of francs," denounced Beat Zemp, president of the Swiss Teachers’ Association (LCH).

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