October figures Unemployment rate remains at 2.5 percent

The number of unemployed people in Switzerland increased slightly in October. Nevertheless, the rate remained at 2.5 percent.

At the end of October, 116,447 people were registered as unemployed in the regional employment centers (RAV), as reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on Tuesday. This was 3202 more than in September.

Adjusted for seasonal effects, the number of unemployed rose by 1771 people. The adjusted unemployment rate thus remained at 2.6 percent.

The unemployment rate is subject to seasonal fluctuations because there is more or less work in some sectors at certain times of the year. For example, many construction sites are closed in winter and there is less work in tourism in the off-season. This is masked by the adjusted figure.

Slight decline in short-time work

Other key figures on the labor market also point in a similar direction. For example, Seco counted 191,163 jobseekers in October. This was 6790 more than in the previous month. The jobseeker rate thus rose by 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month to 4.2 percent. Seasonally adjusted, it increased to 4.3 percent from 4.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of vacancies registered with the RAV fell by 3,849 to 34,471. According to Seco, 16,476 of these vacancies were subject to the registration requirement, which applies to occupations with an unemployment rate of at least 5 percent.

There is still no dramatic increase in short-time work. On the contrary, in August - the data is reported with a delay - only 4,256 people were on short-time work, 597 fewer than in the previous month. The number of companies affected fell by 22 to 278.

SDA