The Swiss Labor Market from a Psychological Perspective

The majority of women work in caring and educational occupations, while men are predominantly employed in manual and technical occupations - this has hardly changed in the Swiss labor market over the past 23 years. There have been shifts, however, in the distribution of occupational types: Occupations with a craft-technical orientation still account for the largest share of the labor market, but the number of leading-selling occupations has risen sharply over the past two decades. This is shown by an examination of data from the Swiss Labor Force Survey of more than half a million professionals over a 23-year period. Using six occupational interest types, researchers led by Anja Ghetta and Andreas Hirschi of the Institute of Psychology at the University of Bern analyzed the development of the Swiss labor market from 1991 to 2014 from a psychological perspective. The results were published in the "Swiss Journal of Psychology".

Psychology of the Swiss Labor Market

Personal interest is one of the most important factors in choosing a career. In order to find a suitable occupation, it is important on the one hand to know one's own interests and on the other hand to know how these interests can be realized in the labor market. Labor markets are typically described based on industries or economic sectors. Within these industries and sectors, however, there are significant differences in the interests that can be realized in particular occupations. For example, cooks have very different occupational interests than do hotel clerks, even if they work in the same industry. Until now, little was known about how strongly certain occupational interest types are represented in the Swiss labor market and how they have developed in recent decades. Occupations of the "manual-technical" type are characterized by the fact that people in them like to work with objects and materials and use tools or operate machines. This includes occupations such as sound engineer, farmer or carpenter. The results show that between 1991 and 2014, the percentage of these occupations in the Swiss 2 labor market decreased. However, this type consistently represented the field of interest with the most employees; in 2014, 30% worked in a craft and technical occupation. Individuals in occupations of the "investigating-researching" type like to deal with ideas and want to use scientific methods and logical thinking to find out something new. Examples of occupations are scientist, detective or psychologist. Occupations of this type grew strongly in percentage over the last years, but at a low level (9% in 2014). In occupations of the "artistic-creative" type, individuals are typically interested in art, language, and abstract concepts and want to creatively create or design something. Typical occupations include singer, graphic designer, or writer. This occupational type remained at a very low level during the 23 years analyzed; in 2014, 3% worked in an artistic-creative occupation. People in occupations of the "educating-caring" type like to work with people whom they want to support, advise, care for or educate. This includes occupations such as teacher, nurse, or social worker. This type of occupation has grown significantly in recent years and currently represents 16% of the labor market.

Employment opportunities of the future

The occupational type "leading-selling" reflects an interest in economic and entrepreneurial activities, as is the case in occupations such as advertising specialist, entrepreneur or salesperson. This field of interest has grown the most of all since 1991 and represents the second largest field in the Swiss labor market in 2014 with 25%. Occupations of the "tidy-administrative" type are, for example, archivist, secretary or lawyer. Persons in these occupations are interested in conscientious and structured work with data and facts. In percentage terms, this occupational field has shrunk slightly over the past 23 years to 18% in 2014. Overall, it was found that the Swiss labor market offers different opportunities for people with different interests. Individuals with craft and technical occupational interests continue to find a large labor market. However, the sharp increase in occupations of the educating-caring as well as leading-selling interest type points to important future employment opportunities for individuals with such interests. "These results can play an important role in career choice and career counseling," says Andreas Hirschi.

Stable differences between men and women

Women and men are differently active in the various fields of interest, and these differences were surprisingly stable over the 23 years studied. In occupations with manual-technical interests, men have consistently been in the majority, whereas occupations with educational-caregiving interests have always been carried out by a large majority of women. The most balanced gender ratio is in occupations with managerial-sales interests, in which women have accounted for about half of the employees since 1991. Compared to men, women are less concentrated in one field of interest, but work in a broader range of occupations - every fourth to fifth woman works in an educational-caring, managerial-selling, order-managing, or manual-technical occupation. It is noteworthy that during the last 23 years, despite increasing equality in society, there have been no major fluctuations in the proportions of women and men in the six occupational types. "The results suggest that the practice of occupations based on gender-typical occupational interests is extremely stable," says Anja Ghetta.

Publication details:

Ghetta, A., Hirschi, A., Herrmann, A., & Rossier, J.: A Psychological Description of the Swiss Labor Market from 1991 to 2014: Occupational Interest Types, Gender, Salary, and Skill Level. Swiss Journal of Psychology. March 2018, 77, 83-94.

Source: www.unibe.ch