Job growth thanks to high demand for IT professionals
The Swiss labor market is defying recession fears and job cuts at international technology companies. The IT sector saw the strongest growth in the number of advertised jobs, according to the Michael Page Swiss Job Index. Demand for IT jobs was spread across the financial and business services, healthcare and life sciences, wholesale and retail, manufacturing and public administration sectors.
The number of jobs advertised each month in Switzerland increased by +5.2% (January - February 2023). The IT sector performed best with a monthly job growth of +20%.
| Leading categories | Monthly growth (Jan. 2023 - Feb. 2023) |
Annual growth (Feb. 2022 - Feb. 2023) |
|
+21.7% | -10.6% |
|
+16.7% | +22.5% |
|
+16.2% | +25.4% |
|
+14.3% | -10.5% |
|
+13.5% | -15.6% |
Year-on-year, the number of advertised jobs increased by +6.2% (February 2022-February 2023). French-speaking Switzerland led the growth with a monthly increase of +6.5%. In German-speaking Switzerland, where 9 out of 10 jobs are advertised, the number of vacancies increased by +4.9%.
Eastern Switzerland recorded the largest job growth with +7.7 %. More than 50% of the job vacancies in this region were for IT, engineering or technical professionals. All regions recorded positive monthly growth.
| Regions | Monthly growth (Jan. 2023 - Feb. 2023) | Annual growth (Feb. 2022 - Feb. 2023) |
| Eastern Switzerland (AI, AR, GL, GR, SG, SH, TG) | +7.7% | +7.5% |
| Lake Geneva region (GE, VD, VS) | +6.1% | +4.8% |
| Central Switzerland (LU, NW, OW, SZ, UR, ZG) | +5.9% | +14.6% |
| Northwestern Switzerland (AG, BL, BS) | +4.9% | +11.1% |
| Zurich (ZH) | +4.5% | +2.0% |
| Central Plateau (BE, FR, JU, NE, SO) | +3.4% | +3.4% |
"The labor market has started the new year very well, especially in IT and despite the market correction following Covid-driven IT infrastructure growth in 2021 and 2022. Overall, demand for IT professionals is increasing, especially in security, development and data management. Demand in the systems and support areas, on the other hand, is back at pre-Covid levels," says Thibaud de Balby, Manager Technology Recruitment at Michael Page, commenting on the situation. In general, then, the signs in the Swiss labor market are pointing to optimism, as already reported elsewhere was.
Source: Michael Page
