Labor market Unemployment rate rises to 2.5 percent in September

Unemployment figures continue to rise in Switzerland. In September, the unemployment rate rose to 2.5 percent after 2.4 percent in August. A year ago, the figure was still at a very low 2.0 percent. Meanwhile, short-time work decreased in July.

A total of 113,245 people were registered as unemployed in the regional employment centers (RAV) in Switzerland at the end of the reporting month, as reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on Friday. This was 1,891 more than in August and 22,419 more than in the previous year.

Adjusted for seasonal effects, the number of unemployed rose by 2,492 to 119,310 compared to the previous month. The adjusted unemployment rate thus rose by 0.1 percentage points to 2.6%. This calculation excludes seasonal fluctuations, as is the case in sectors such as construction or tourism.

Less short-time work

More people were also looking for work in Switzerland in September. The number of jobseekers increased by 4137 to 184,373 within the month. Compared to the previous year, there were a fifth more jobseekers.

On the other hand, there were also more vacancies registered with the RAV. Since August, the number of vacancies has risen by 2074 to 38,320. According to Seco, 18,693 of these were subject to the obligation to register, which applies to occupations with an unemployment rate of at least 5 percent.

An improvement can be seen in the statistics on short-time work, although the data for July is only available with a delay. Here, 2566 employees were affected by short-time work, compared to 6265 in June. The number of companies affected fell by 121 to 198.

SDA