Employment prospects continue to deteriorate in Switzerland

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In Switzerland, the outlook for employment has deteriorated further. The corresponding indicator from the Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich economic research centre KOF is only just in positive territory.

This content was published on

August 5, 2025 – 10:42

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The employment indicator stood at 0.3 points in the third quarter, as the institute announced on Tuesday. In the second quarter of 2025, it was still at 1.0 (revised from 0.6). The indicator has thus reached its lowest level since the beginning of 2021.

According to the economists, a rapid upturn in the labour market is not in sight. Accordingly, the number of jobs in Switzerland is likely to grow only slightly or even decline slightly in the coming months.

The analyses are based on the responses of around 4,400 companies that were surveyed by KOF in July 2025 about their employment plans and expectations.

+ Employment slightly up at end of 2024 in Switzerland

The reasons for the decline are a more cautious assessment of current employment levels and employment prospects. On balance, the assessment of the current employment situation is still slightly positive.

The employment outlook, on the other hand, fell to 0.0 points. This means that the same number of companies now want to reduce the number of employees in the next three months as those that want to increase them.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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Employment prospects continue to deteriorate in Switzerland

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