Consistently low level: unemployment rate falls to 2.0 percent in March

Unemployment rate falls to 2.0 percent in March

The Swiss labor market is in good shape. The last time the annual rate for March was lower was in 2001.

Published today at 8:24 am

At the end of March, 92,755 people were registered as unemployed at the regional employment centers (RAV), 5,697 fewer than in the previous month.

Photo: Robert Michael (Keystone)

The Swiss labor market is still in good shape. The unemployment rate fell again in March. At the end of March, 92,755 people were registered as unemployed at the regional employment centers (RAV), 5,697 fewer than in the previous month. The unemployment rate fell to 2.0 percent from 2.1 percent in February, as the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) announced on Thursday. The economists surveyed by the AWP news agency had expected 1.9 to 2.0 percent.

The rate is therefore still at a very low level. A lower annual rate for March was last measured in 2001 at 1.7 percent. A year-on-year comparison also shows how low unemployment is at the moment. In March 2022, 16,745 more people were registered as unemployed.

The unemployment rate is usually subject to seasonal fluctuations because there is less work in the winter months, for example in construction, agriculture and gastronomy. The number of unemployed adjusted for seasonal factors by Seco increased minimally in March 2023. However, the corresponding unemployment rate remained at a very low 1.9 percent.

Fewer job seekers

The data on job searches also show how dried up the job market in Switzerland is: In March 2023, there were 161,864 registered job seekers, according to Seco, 4899 fewer than in February. In a year-on-year comparison, 31,731 fewer people were looking for a job.

The jobs reported to the RAV rose by 1,741 to a good 56,742 in the month under review compared to February. According to the information, 35,049 of these vacancies were subject to the job registration requirement. This applies to occupations with an unemployment rate of at least 5 percent.

Hardly any more short-time work

The instrument of short-time work hardly plays a role in the Swiss labor market anymore. In January – the data are reported with a delay – only 1552 people were on short-time work. The number of companies affected by short-time work fell by 22 to 137 compared to the previous month.

The Seco also draws an interim balance on combating abuse in short-time work during the pandemic. To date, around 2,200 references to “irregularities” have been received, according to the statement. And 623 companies were checked on site.

In around 11 percent of the cases, an abusive use of benefits could be proven, in 65 percent of the cases not everything went according to plan and there were claims for reimbursement, 24 percent of the statements turned out to be correct.

Thanks to the low unemployment rate, unemployment insurance will close in 2022 with a surplus of CHF 2.31 billion. On average over the year, 99,577 insured persons received benefits, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 2.2 percent.

The positive labor market development resulted in long-term lows in unemployment figures, as the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) announced on Thursday. The unemployment insurance compensation fund (ALV) closed with total income of CHF 9.64 billion after CHF 14.1 billion in the previous year.

This was offset by expenses of CHF 7.3 billion (2021: CHF 14.3 billion). ALV’s equity increased to CHF 4 billion by the end of the year.

In 2023, the solidarity contribution of one percent above the maximum insured annual salary of CHF 148,200 will no longer apply, as Seco further announced. Parliament introduced the solidarity percentage in 2011 to pay off the ALV debt of 6 billion francs more quickly.

This was linked to a certain level of equity. Because this has been reached, the solidarity percentage is automatically dropped by law.

In 2021, the ALV had written a loss of 186 million francs with an unemployment rate of 3 percent. The insurance company therefore did not have to incur any new debts, because the federal government took over the short-time work compensation from 2020 to 2022 due to the Covid 19 pandemic. (SDA)