Over 25,000 new companies in the first half of 2022

The daily updated study "National Analysis of Swiss Company Formations 1st Half Year 2022", prepared by the Institute for Young Enterprises IFJ, shows that in the first 6 months of the current year 25'447 new companies were registered in the Swiss Commercial Register. This corresponds to a slight decrease of -3.6% compared to the first half of 2021, which went down in history as a record half-year with 26,387 new companies. Despite the decline, the 10-half year comparison shows that +13% more firms were formed in the first half of 2022 than the long-term average. Since the slight declines from 2014 to 2015 and 2019 to 2020, the Commercial Register Offices have seen an overall positive trend. This means that in the last 10 years, 22'511 new companies were registered in the Commercial Register per first half of the year. With its 25,447 new companies, the 1st half of 2022 thus recorded the second highest level and is significantly higher than the average of the last 10 half-years with +13%.

Strong differences in the major regions - Zurich as a start-up engine

According to the IFJ's analysis, Zurich is the only major region with a slight increase of +0.3% in the first half of 2022. The other major regions of Southwestern Switzerland (-1.6%), Eastern Switzerland (-2.8%), Ticino (-3.1%) and Central Switzerland (-3.9%) recorded slight declines compared to the same period last year. In the regions of Espace Mittelland (-7.4%) and Northwestern Switzerland (-7.9%), significantly fewer new companies were founded than in the first half of 2021. Broken down by canton, the situation looks like this: In 9 cantons, the number of new startups in the first half of 2022 increased again compared to the record-high period of the previous year. These are currently the cantons with growth in Swiss company formations: Appenzell Innerrhoden (+18.5%), Jura (+6.9%), Fribourg (+4.8%), Obwalden (+4.6%), Glarus (2.9%), St. Gallen (+1.3%), Vaud (+0.9%), Zurich (+0.3%) and Valais (+0.2%).The cantons with only slight percentage declines are Appenzell Ausserrhoden (-1.2%), Basel-Land (-2.1%), Lucerne (-2.2%), Ticino (-3.1%) and Uri (-4.3%). The strongest percentage declines in company formations were registered in the commercial registry offices of the cantons of Nidwalden (-18%), Basel-Stadt (-12.5%), Bern (-12.4%), Neuchâtel (-11.9%) and Graubünden (-10.9%)

New companies by industry

Top growth industries this year include high-tech (+22.1%), healthcare (+9.7%), and transportation & logistics (+9.3%). The highest percentage declines are in
Agriculture & Forestry (-20.2%), Wholesale (-15.2%) and Retail (-13.8%). The analysis shows that especially the retail sector is struggling strongly. In addition to the two startup-intensive sectors of healthcare and IT & ICT, smaller sectors in particular are recording positive accents.

Optimism among founders

The geopolitical and economic uncertainties and the ongoing international Corona measures are also affecting the Swiss economy. Nevertheless, Swiss founders are optimistic. Swiss company founders give an unequivocal answer to the question "Why found a company?

One figure in particular shows how important an ideal balance between courage and intellect is to self-employed people: at the time of founding, 66% of the founders are still in a different
company employed. After the start-up, this number drops to around 40%. The idea of security can therefore be ideally combined with the desire for more freedom, as the IFJ writes. Workers in the home office continue to use the time to implement their own ideas, people are looking for meaningful employment more than ever. And as in all difficult times, many innovations and improvements are being developed from the current situation. In addition, social acceptance of self-employment continues to grow.

Source: Institute for Young Enterprises IFJ