Jobless rate holds steady

Unemployment steady for now - but due to rise soon Keystone Archive

The unemployment rate in Switzerland held steady over September at 1.7 per cent, according to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). The figure was in line with economists' expectations.

Last month the number of people registered as unemployed edged up slightly to 62,170 from 61,079 in August. That compares with the 62,329 who were out of work in the same period last year, Seco said in a statement released on Friday.

The small increase seen in September was not enough to shift the headline rate from 1.7 per cent. The number of job vacancies fell slightly to 10,760 in September from 11,259 in August.

Marcus Allenspach, chief economist at Cantrade Private Bank, told swissinfo recently that the jobless rate would pick up during the remainder of the year.

“In the first half we didn’t see a big impact on the jobless numbers because a lot of companies still had vacancies at the end of last year,” explained Allenspach. “Now we are seeing a lot of anecdotal evidence from banks and insurers that they are imposing a hiring freeze so unemployment will edge up over the remainder of the year.”

The economic implications of the September 11 attacks on the United States are not starting to filter through. The effects can already be seen for workers at Swissair Group where many now face redundancy.

The downturn in passengers after the attacks exacerbated an already serious financial situation at the airline company, forcing the group to go into receivership earlier in the week.

Economists are expecting the unemployment rate to rise to between 2.5 and 3.0 per cent during the first half of next year, before coming down again in the second half of 2002.

by Tom O’Brien