The number of workers crossing the border daily into Switzerland has increased by a third over the past five years, passing from 194,000 in 2006 to 259,000 at the end of last year.
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According to figures released by the Federal Statistics Office on Monday, administrative employees (+71 per cent), unskilled labour (+67 per cent) and managers were the categories that grew the most during that period.
Switzerland’s working population grew by 8.8 per cent to 4.732 million between 2006 and 2011.
The majority of these cross-border workers are aged between 25 and 49, and approximately 64 per cent are men. Forty per cent work in the industrial sector and almost 60 per cent in services.
The biggest group resides in France, with over 136,000 people at the end of 2011. This number has increased 77 per cent since 2006. More than 54,000 make the trip daily from Germany, while nearly 60,000 arrive from Italy.
Nearly 80 per cent of these workers are employed in three regions: Lake Geneva with around a third, just over a quarter in northwestern Switzerland and on fifth in the southern canton of Ticino. In the first two regions, they represent one tenth of the workforce and nearly a quarter in Ticino.
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