Unemployment falls again in Switzerland

More than two thousand fewer people out of work in Switzerland in April Keystone

The unemployment rate in Switzerland fell to 1.7 per cent of the workforce in April, down from 1.8 per cent in March. The number of people out of work eased to 63,032 last month from 65,625 in March.

Commenting on the figures, Marcus Allenspach, an economist at Cantrade Private Bank, told swissinfo that he wasn’t surprised by the continued improvement in the employment situation.

“Basically we’ve got a lot of anecdotal evidence that the economy is very strong and there is still a shortage of workers,” explained Allenspach. “Everyone is still hiring and I expect unemployment to fall even lower.”

Canton Geneva remained the country’s unemployment black spot with 4 per cent of its workforce without a job, although this was down from the 4.1 per cent out of work seen in March.

The greatest improvement was seen in the Italian-language canton of Tichino. Unemployment there dropped by more than 500 people, bringing the local rate down from 2.7 per cent in March to 2.4 per cent in April.

The lowest rate of unemployment is in the German-speaking canton of Uri, where the jobless rate dropped from 0.5 per cent in March to 0.3 per cent in April.

swissinfo with agencies