Swiss companies are investing significantly to attract and retain well-trained professionals as the war for talent on the Swiss job market intensifies, according to PageGroup.

PageGroup’s Swiss Job Index and the Confidence Index has provided five key reasons for optimism about Swiss labour market in 2019.

1. 1.       Advertised jobs have grown 18.9% year-on-year (December 2017 – December 2018): According to the Michael Page Swiss Job Index (December 2018), this is the third year in a row that advertised jobs have shown a positive double-digit growth.
2. 2.       Demand exceeds supply for many specialist jobs: These jobs include IT, Pharma, Engineering. Key drivers for IT and engineering roles include industrial organisations converging, aligning and integrating their IT and Operational Technology environments as part of “Industry 4.0” and the Internet of Everything. The Fintech and Cybersecurity fields are also significant sources demand for IT developers. The Pharmaceutical sector also continues to invest for the long-term and drive demand for specialists in this field.
3. 3.       Interim and temporary jobs grew by 6.3% year-on-year (December 2017 – December 2018): It is now one of the top 5 categories of professional employment behind sales and business management and administration. PageGroup said that this growth is good news as many interim jobs translate into full-time jobs. PageGroup expects this category to grow strongly in 2019 mainly because the war for talent is so strong in many fields that there is simply not enough candidates to undertake key projects. Furthermore, candidates have become increasingly open to interim and temporary employment. The PageGroup Confidence Index (Q3 2018), showed that two thirds of candidates are prepared to work on a temporary or interim basis. Key reasons cited achieving a working life balance and flexible conditions.
4. 4.       Companies are investing in sales jobs. The higher the investment in sales jobs, the greater business leaders’ confidence in increased demand and revenue streams. Advertised jobs in sales grew by 30.0% year-on-year across Switzerland – especially in specialist fields such as pharma, med-tech and IT.
5. 5.        All regions show strong growth in advertised jobs: Double digit year-on-year growth was seen in advertised jobs across all regions.

“With such strong growth for specialists, talent acquisition and retention will continue to be a challenge for employers in 2019. Given the shortages in many technical job categories, we highly recommend that employers and candidates consider all options – permanent, temporary and interim” Jérôme Bouin, Managing Director of PageGroup Switzerland, said.