A new survey by Manpower has found that over 40 percent of international companies and domestic businesses in Switzerland are looking to hire new workers. However, while the alpine nation is continuing to suffer its worst skills shortage ever, the study found that some areas of the country are seeing a net decline in the number of vacancies.

Demand for skilled workers reaches new highs in Switzerland

In the press release, given to Blick, the recruitment agency said that “skilled workers remain a rare commodity in Switzerland.” In their latest Employment Barometer for the start of 2023, the company found that 41 percent of companies in the alpine nation are looking for staff, while just 16 percent expect some of their workers to lose their jobs in the future.

When retirements, layoffs and new jobs are considered, the net employment rate in Switzerland came in at +24 percent, a decline of 5 percent compared to the same period last year. Manpower explained that while this does show that the situation is stabilising from the peak of the employment crisis in 2022, qualified staff are still few and far between, with the number of vacancies in Switzerland still hovering around the quarter of a million mark.

Some areas of Switzerland see new job offers decline in 2023

The area with the highest demand for workers was Canton Ticino, where a net 45 percent of employers are offering jobs. This fell to 25 percent in both Canton Zurich and the area around Lake Geneva (Vaud, Geneva and Valais).

However, the same cannot be said for other parts of the country, with central and eastern Switzerland seeing net employment prospects fall by 15 and 35 percent respectively. This was also reflected in some industries, with companies in three of 12 job sectors - healthcare, life sciences and consumer services - seeing a decline in the number of new jobs offered, something Manpower blamed on a “return to normal” after the hiring spree seen during the pandemic.

The sectors with the most demand were the transportation, logistics and automotive industries. Demand for real estate agents and those working in finance also increased. The most substantial rise in demand was found in the information technology sector - Manpower noted that 46 percent of IT firms surveyed are now looking to hire, up from 24 percent in January 2022.