Jobless Swiss bankers hits record high

Job market for bank employees remains sluggish Keystone-SDA

The number of unemployed bank employees is rising steadily as the number of vacancies in the banking sector remains at a low level.

Across Switzerland, 4,474 people who had most recently worked in a bank were registered as unemployed with regional job centres in June. This brings the number of unemployed bankers to a record high – the figure has risen by 1.4% since May alone.

And over the past year, the figure has risen by almost 24%, according to statistics published last week by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

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The difficult labour market situation in the banking sector is particularly acute in the canton of Zurich. There alone, over 1,500 former bank employees are registered as unemployed. Within a year, the number of unemployed bankers has swelled by over a third.

Given the reorganisation at the major bank UBS following the takeover of Credit Suisse, this situation is unlikely to change much.

Meanwhile, the prospects of finding a new job in the sector are poor. The job portal Indeed, which regularly analyses job vacancies at the ten largest Swiss banks for the financial news agency AWP, counted just 514 job advertisements across Switzerland at the end of June. Admittedly, that is a few more than in May. However, at that time, the number of vacancies had also hit a new low.

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Job vacancies halved

Viewed over a slightly longer period, the number of advertised vacancies remains very low, according to Indeed’s data. Two years ago, in June 2024, the ten largest banks combined had advertised 50% more vacancies.

In the summer of 2023, the number of job vacancies on the banks’ websites – at just over 1,000 – was actually twice as high as it is now.

At UBS in particular, the number of vacancies is at a very low level, with currently not even 50 jobs advertised. Compared with June 2025, there are currently 60% fewer vacancies listed on the website.

Compared with the summer of 2024, the figure is almost 80% lower. And in 2023, when the newly acquired Credit Suisse also had a job portal, UBS and Credit Suisse were together recruiting for no fewer than 270 positions.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.