During a recent round table held in Geneva on the current challenges of the labor market in Switzerland, the managing director of the recruitment firm Morgan Philips shared this anecdote:
“A human resources director from a fine watch company asked me the other day: ‘Now I feel like I’m the one doing the interviews. It’s normal ?'”
Staying attractive is “the great fear and the great challenge” of Swiss employers, writes Heidi. news at a time when the unemployment rate is at its lowest (2.0% in June) and when there is a shortage of labor. “The word ‘shortage’ is on everyone’s lips. The lack of staff forced [la compagnie aérienne nationale] Swiss to cut flights this summer. The Adecco Group Swiss Job Market Index published this week shows that most professional categories are experiencing a strong increase in job vacancies. “Due to the aging of the population, a deficit of almost 1.3 million working people is to be expected by 2050,” Swiss Employers’ Union director Roland A. Müller told the[agence de presse] ATS. »
Tens of thousands of vacancies
In one year, the proportion of vacant positions in Switzerland has increased very significantly: + 60.4% all sectors combined between the first quarter of 2022 and the same period in 2021, reports Swissinfo.ch. “For the first time, the threshold of 100,000 vacancies has been exceeded.” Switzerland not only lacks waiters and cooks for the hotel and catering industry (10,600 vacancies), but also real estate professionals, lawyers, accountants and engineers (16,200 vacancies in “ technical and scientific professions”), not to mention health personnel (15,900 vacancies). To the aging of the population, we must add another direct cause to the current shortage: the vigor of the post-pandemic recovery, underlines Swissinfo.ch.
In this context, the“immigration is an opportunity for Switzerland”, highlights the daily Timewhich relays the latest report from the Observatory on the free movement of persons (LCP) as the agreement concluded in this area between the Swiss Confederation and the European Union is celebrating its 20th anniversary. “This is the biggest labor market reform of the last fifty yearsrecalls Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, the Secretary of State for the Economy, and Switzerland has benefited greatly from the LCP.”
There will be a shortage of 40,000 IT specialists in Switzerland in 2026
Foreign labor immigration, which had fallen sharply during the pandemic, increased again in 2021. “Overseas recruitment has helped address labor shortages and supported economic development,” emphasizes the State Secretariat for the Economy (Seco).
One sector in particular can only be pleased with the free movement of people: that of information technology, “always in desperate search of qualified personnel”, Explain Time. A sector where the national workforce potential is already fully exploited: the activity rate is currently at 92.2% in 2021 and the unemployment rate at 1.6%, i.e. “an almost incompressible threshold”. However, according to estimates, there will be a shortage of around 40,000 IT specialists in Switzerland in 2026.
In this case, European immigration will not be enough. Swiss companies have already taken on staff from non-European states, including India, the United Kingdom and the United States. “To successfully adapt to the challenges of the future, it will be essential to know how well Switzerland manages to exploit the national potential and to guarantee the retention of the qualified workforce through recruitment at the national level. ‘foreign”, believes the Seco.