The Swiss Labour Market Barometer is a monthly leading indicator based on a survey of labour market experts from selected employment centres in 22 cantons.
Swiss Labour Market Barometer remains in negative territory
In February, the short-term, seasonally adjusted outlook for the Swiss labour market as anticipated by labour market experts remained negative on the whole. The barometer reached 98.4 points.
“In real terms, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate has been creeping up for a year now. This reflects the dampened demand for labour amid weaker economic growth. The slowdown of the economy manifested itself last autumn among other things in a year-on-year increase in the number of workers receiving short-time working compensation,” says Oliver Schärli, head of the Labour market/unemployment insurance division at SECO.
At 98.1 percentage points, the short-term outlook for registered unemployment (seasonally adjusted) was once again worse in February than the short-term outlook for employment (seasonally adjusted), which reached 98.7 points.
Methodology
The Swiss Labour Market Barometer is a monthly leading indicator based on a survey of labour market experts from selected employment centres in 22 cantons. The survey has been conducted since May 2021 by SECO in collaboration with the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Germany and the European Labour Market Barometer.
While component A of the barometer signals the development of the seasonally adjusted unemployment figures for the next three months, component B forecasts employment trends. The average of the components ‘unemployment’ and ‘employment’ constitutes the total value of the barometer. This indicator thus provides an outlook on the overall development of the labour market. The scale ranges from 90 (very poor development) to 110 (very good development).
European Labour Market Barometer
The European Labour Market Barometer has been conducted since June 2018 together with the public employment offices in participating countries and the IAB. Currently, 18 countries take part in the survey. These include: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Belgium-DG, Belgium-Flanders, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium-Wallonia.
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