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Swiss labour market faces pressure with job ads down 10% in 2024

Swiss labour market faces pressure with job ads down 10% in 2024

Danny Romero
| January 24, 2025
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The number of job advertisements in Switzerland fell by 10% in the full year 2024 when compared to the previous year, according to the latest Adecco Group Swiss Job Market Index, conducted by the Adecco Group Switzerland and the University of Zurich’s Swiss job market monitor.

Figures for the fourth quarter of 2024 showed the number of job vacancies in 2024 fell 13% compared with the previous year.

“The weak Swiss economy is continuing to affect the labour market,” Marcel Keller, country president of Adecco Switzerland, said in a press release. “Employment growth slowed in 2024 compared with 2023, causing unemployment to increase slightly. The number of job vacancies also fell. This figure is still above pre-pandemic levels, but is increasingly approaching them – a sign that the labour market is normalising. What impact the weak economy will have in 2025 remains to be seen.”

The STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and healthcare professional groups saw a decline in jobs in 2024, for the second year in a row. At a decline of 19% compared with the previous year, this was steeper than in 2023 (-3%). The primary driving force was a declining demand for software developers and analysts.

Further research found that the office and administration specialists professional group once again saw a drop (-17%) in job advertisements in 2024 – for the second year in a row. This continued the slight negative trend that already began before the coronavirus pandemic.

Three professional groups saw moderate drops of 7% to 8%. Firstly, technology specialists, with a drop of 8%, which includes electrical engineers, webmasters and process engineers. This was closely followed by the economics and social science graduate professions professional group with a drop of 7%. This includes teachers, lawyers and financial analysts, for example.

Service industry and sales specialists similarly saw a 7% drop in job advertisements. This group covers professions such as healthcare and nursing specialists, chefs and retail specialists.

The professional groups of managers and skilled trade and support personnel saw the smallest drop in job advertisements compared with the previous year, at 3%.

“The 2024 figures highlight two key topics for the Swiss labour market: the international economy and technological change,” Johanna Bolli-Kemper, Swiss Job Market Monitor, said in a press release.

“Reduced demand for IT professions such as software developers could indicate long-term changes as a result of technological change, especially AI,” Bolli-Kemper added. “Automation-related drops in professions with many routine activities, e.g. in office and administration work, are well documented by studies. However, it remains to be seen what long-term impact technological change will have on demand for IT professions.”