The international employment agency, Manpower, says in its latest report on the Swiss employment market that the Swiss economy remains in good health. Its monthly index climbed 0.8 in May to 78.0, following on from a 0.1 increase in April.

Manpower's survey reports that job offers in the Swiss press rose in nine out of the 13 regions covered by the index. It also said the domestic employment market is tightening even more as the gap between job offers and those actively seeking work is narrowing.

The best performance was seen in canton Schaffhausen ( 8.8 points at 97.3). The region of Biel came in second place ( 4.2 at 92.0), followed by Berne ( 2.9 at 80.0), Fribourg ( 2.1 at 71.8) and Basel ( 2.0 at 47.7).

The areas which lost out were mainly to be found in the French speaking part of Switzerland, with the exception of Lucerne (-1.4 at 59.3). Otherwise canton
Vaud was down (- 1.2 at 62.0), followed by Valais (- 0.9 at 48.9) and Geneva
(- 0.4 at 42.1).

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