National economy Service sector continues to gain importance for the labor market
The service sector continues to grow in importance on the Swiss labor market. In 2024, Switzerland had 5.34 million people in employment. The proportion of people working in the service sector has risen from 68.5% to 77.8% since 1994.
10.11.2025, 11:05
SDA
In the same period, the share of the primary and secondary sectors fell to 2.3% (-1.8 percentage points) and 19.9% (-7.5 percentage points) respectively, as the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) wrote on Monday in a report on labor supply in the economic sectors.
According to the report, the "Health and social work" sector employed the most people in 2024, accounting for 14.8% of all workers in Switzerland. In 1994, the figure was 9.2 percent.
More women
This is followed by the "manufacturing" sector with 12.3% and "trade, maintenance and repair of motor vehicles" with 11.1%. However, these two sectors have lost importance over the last 30 years.
Meanwhile, the proportion of women in the workforce rose from 42.9% to 47.0% between 1994 and 2024. However, the differences in the individual sectors vary considerably. For example, the proportion of women in the "health and social services" and "private households as employers" sectors is just under three quarters.
The proportion of women has risen particularly sharply in the "public administration" sector, by 14.7 percentage points to 49.9%. In the "Information and communication" and "Hotels, restaurants and catering" sectors, the proportion of women fell sharply during this period.
Large wage differences
The differences in pay also remain high. Here, the FSO refers to figures from 2022, which show that wages in sectors such as information technology (CHF 9412), the pharmaceutical industry (CHF 10,296), banks (CHF 10,491) and the tobacco industry (CHF 13,299) were significantly higher than the median gross salary of CHF 6,788 per month for a full-time employee.
At the bottom of the wage pyramid are the retail trade (5095 francs), hospitality (4601 francs), accommodation (4572 francs) and personal services (4384 francs).
