Sharp increase in jobless figures

Unemployment has been stable over the past years but rose appreciably last month swissinfo.ch

Unemployment in Switzerland has increased sharply in the wake of the collapse of Swissair and the economic stagnation.

The jobless rate rose in December to 2.4 per cent or 86,027 people, according to figures released on Tuesday by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern (Seco).

Included in this figure are around 1,600 Swissair staff who lost their jobs in December, plus an unspecified number of workers whose livelihoods depended on the national carrier.

Unemployment stood at 2.1 per cent in November when there were 8,394 fewer people out of work.

Seco said unemployment had risen by 1,751 or 0.2 per cent in canton Zurich to 17,295 in December, making it the canton with the highest unemployment in Switzerland by far in terms of people.

However, the highest unemployment rate in Switzerland is in canton Geneva with 4.8 per cent of the working population or 9,837 people out of a job.

Other cantons with an above average unemployment rate include Ticino (3.6 per cent), Valais (3.5 per cent), Vaud (3.1 per cent), Neuchâtel (3 per cent), and Jura (2.9 per cent).

Annual rate

Seco said that for the year 2001 as a whole, there was an average unemployment rate in Switzerland of 1.9 per cent or 67,197 people, compared with a rate of 2.0 per cent in 2000.

It added that there had been a decline in jobless figures between January and June, a trend which reversed after July to such an extent that for the first time since 1996 there were more jobless at the end of the year than at the beginning.

The Secretariat said that in December the number of people seeking a job was 129,849. This is 9,041 more than the previous month, it added.

The number of job vacancies fell to 9,488 from 11,578.

“Quite a shock”

Commenting on the figures, UBS Warburg chief economist Klaus Wellershof told swissinfo that he thought they were a clear expression that the economy was on a downturn.

“The markets had been expecting rates of about 2.2 per cent and a December figure of 2.4 per cent is quite a shock to everybody,” he said.

“Even if you take out seasonal factors, you’d see that the trend in unemployment is clearly upwards at the moment and that will have an impact on consumer confidence and overall growth,” he added.

Wellershof said that with depressed consumer expectations for the future and with uncertainty about individual job prospects, it had to be expected that consumption was going to fall, as well as growth.

“We will have higher unemployment rates, lower growth and obviously very difficult conditions for companies to stay profitable,” he commented.

On Monday, the Swiss Trades Union Federation said it feared stagnation or even recession for the Swiss economy this year and warned that the number of people unemployed in Switzerland could break the 100,000 barrier from February.

The Business Economists Consensus forecast last month that the average unemployment rate in 2002 would be 2.17 per cent.

swissinfo with agencies