Swiss unemployment rate up slightly in August

The rise in unemployment particularly affected young people aged 15 to 24. Keystone-SDA

The Swiss job market deteriorated slightly last month. The number of unemployed rose by almost 3,000 (+2.3%) month-on-month, to reach 132,105. The unemployment rate rose to 2.8%.

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Adjusted for seasonal variations, this rate remained unchanged at 2.9%, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in a statement on Thursday.

The rise in unemployment particularly affected young people aged 15 to 24, with an increase of 2,186 people or 19%, to a new total of 13,682. The unemployment rate for this age group jumped to 3.2%.

The increase for those aged 50 to 64 was limited to 208 people, or +0.6%, to reach 35,848. The unemployment rate rose to 2.5%.

In contrast to the number of unemployed, the number of job-seekers fell by 351 to 209,090 in August. Adjusted for seasonal variations, however, there was an increase of 325 people.

The federal economists also report that in June, the latest period for which they have usable data, 2,519 people exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefits, 532 fewer than in May.

Translated from French with DeepL/gw

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