Corona mood barometer

Every week since the start of the lockdown in Switzerland, the online comparison service Comparis and the market research institute Marketagent Switzerland have asked the population to judge the quality of the Corona crisis management of the following players: Government, healthcare (hospitals, doctors' offices, medical hotlines, etc.), own family, own employer, financial actors (banks, insurance companies, national bank, etc.) army and Swiss population. Over the Easter weekend, respondents rated the behavior of the Swiss population as sufficient for the first time. 

Behavior of the population is also accepted by younger people for the first time 

The Swiss population has improved from a score of 3.8 to 4.0 in four weeks (grading scale 1 to 6). For the first time, the population's behavior is also accepted by younger people. Those aged 40 to 49 gave a 4.0. The under-20s were particularly harsh a month ago: their rating has risen from 3.3 a month ago to 3.9 nonetheless. Among 30- to 39-year-olds, the rating also rose to 3.9 (from 3.4). 

"It is possible that the current positive development in infection figures shows the population how much they have achieved with their behavior and contributes to a more positive evaluation of their own behavior," says Liane Nagengast, market researcher at Marketagent Switzerland. 

Half of respondents give their employer good to very good marks

Employers across all generations may not have been able to improve their score of 4.7 since the last survey. But the proportion of people who gave their own employer a grade of "good" to "very good" has risen more sharply than in any other category since the lockdown began - from 41.1 to 48.9 percent. This is another significant increase of 7.8 percentage points.

The German-speaking Swiss have now overtaken those in Ticino in terms of satisfaction with their employer. Here, 51.5 percent of respondents gave their employers marks between 5 and 6 over the Easter period (7.6 percentage points more than in the first survey). In Ticino, meanwhile, the proportion fell slightly since last week from 52 to 48.9 percent.

"Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the Swiss economy. Their manageable size allows them to react quickly to new challenges, adapt processes accordingly and deploy staff in the best possible way. In combination with the short-time work scheme and the quickly granted crisis loans by the federal government, the Swiss economy is doing very well in international comparison," observes Comparis financial expert Frédéric Papp. The key, however, is an early but careful exit from the lockdown. This is because the "trade, transport and hospitality" sector in particular is threatened by massive losses in value creation due to the loss of final demand of up to 25 percent*. "Losses of this magnitude will lead to further layoffs," says Papp.  

Camp fever among teenagers

After weeks without a fixed school or apprenticeship structure at home, the fourth survey reveals that teenagers are suffering from cabin fever. Family crisis management still tops the rankings, along with that of health care, with an overall rating of 5.2. But among 15- to 19-year-olds, the percentage of respondents who rated their own family as "good" to "very good" plummeted by a whopping 12.8 percentage points last week to just 65.5 percent. That's lower than any time during the entire survey period. The teenage group gave their own family a total rating of 4.9 in the Easter week (after 5.1 in the previous week).

www.comparis.ch