Labor market Only slight increase in unemployment in July

The number of unemployed people in Switzerland increased slightly in July. The rate nevertheless remained at 2.3 percent. Seasonally adjusted, however, the rate rose slightly.

At the end of July, 107,716 people were registered as unemployed in the regional employment centers (RAV), as reported by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) on Tuesday. This was 3198 more than in June.

Adjusted for seasonal effects, the number of unemployed rose by 2436 people. The adjusted unemployment rate thus increased from 2.4 percent to 2.5 percent.

The unemployment rate is subject to seasonal fluctuations because there is more or less work in some sectors at certain times of the year. For example, many construction sites are closed in winter and there is less work in tourism in the off-season. This is eliminated with the adjusted figure. It therefore gives a better picture of how the labor market is developing.

Short-time work declining

The development of other important key figures on the labor market was comparable. For example, Seco counted 179,139 jobseekers in July. This was 4,175 more than in the previous month. The jobseeker rate thus rose by 0.1 percentage points to 3.9% compared to the previous month. Seasonally adjusted, this resulted in a rate of 4.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of vacancies registered with the RAV fell by 2,918 to 36,674. According to Seco, 18,290 of these jobs were subject to the obligation to register, which applies to occupations with an unemployment rate of at least 5 percent.

There is still no dramatic increase in short-time work. On the contrary, only 4,798 people were on short-time work in May - the data is reported with a delay - which is 1,229 fewer than in the previous month. The number of companies affected fell by 67 to 223.

SDA