About Us

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) is the Swiss labour market authority, and thus it is responsible for the law on job placement and unemployment insurance. The cantons, the regional employment centres (RAV), the logistics centres for labour market measures (LMM) and the unemployment insurance funds are responsible for executing these laws.

SECO works to reduce unemployment in cooperation with its executive partners. The unemployment insurance (UI) ensures an adequate replacement income and aims at securing a quick and lasting reintegration of unemployed people into the labour market. Moreover, SECO represents Switzerland in international matters relating to job placement and hiring of staff, as well as all issues concerning unemployment.

SECO - Arbeitslosenversicherung

The regional employment centres (RAV) specialise in the areas of the labour market, unemployment and job placement. The more than 100 RAVs form the largest job placement platform in Switzerland. Both the employers who are offering a position of employment and the unemployed people who are searching for a job will find their regional employment centre to be a trusted partner for advice and job placement.

Since the introduction of obligatory unemployment insurance on 1 January 1984, the unemployment insurance funds (UIF) have been the point of contact for all the financial matters relating to unemployment. The unemployment insurance funds check whether the insured person meets the requirements for claims for unemployment benefit and other payments, within the framework of the Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA), and they are responsible for the monthly payments. These funds pay out the allowances for unemployment, insolvency, bad weather and short-time working compensation; they also pay the training and induction grants.

Today there are a total of 38 responsible organisations in Switzerland which manage an unemployment insurance fund. Each canton operates a public unemployment insurance fund. These are all members of the Association of Public Unemployment Insurance Funds (vak). Besides these, employees’ and employers’ organisations with a national, regional or cantonal reach have set up private insurance funds.

The insured persons and the employers are free to choose any one of the unemployment insurance funds. The law only requires that insolvency compensation has to be processed exclusively by the public insurance funds.

The employment offices are mainly integrated within the Departments of Economic Affairs in the cantonal administration, and bear various names such as...

• Cantonal Department of Industry, Commerce and Labour (KIGA)
• Office for Economics and Labour (AWA)
• Cantonal Employment Office
• Employment Office
• Labour Market Office

The cantonal employment offices report to the regional employment centres (RAV), and generally to the public unemployment insurance funds. Together with the logistics centres for labour market measures (LMM) they ensure that a sufficient range of services is available at Labour market measures. As cantonal labour market authorities, they perform the duties assigned to them by federal law in the areas of labour market and unemployment insurance, as well as additional duties under cantonal law.

The cantonal employment offices are the instances that grants permits for private job placement and temporary HR recruitment (temporary work), within the framework of the federal legislation on job placement. Generally they are also responsible for examining applications for work permits for foreign nationals from the aspect of the labour market. They are also responsible for executing the associated measures based on the treaty with the EU on the free movement of people, and for measures to combat illegal employment without a permit. The cantonal employment offices also exercise supervision over the municipal employment offices, or the first instances for the unemployed to register at.

To promote the cooperation among themselves and with SECO, the labour market authorities are members of the Association of Swiss Labour Market Authorities (VSAA).

Interinstitutional cooperation (IIZ) covers the cooperation of two or more institutions in the area of social security, integration and education (unemployment insurance, disability insurance, social welfare, professional training, and integration of foreign nationals). It pursues the broader aim of trying to improve the chances of people who are entering the regular labour market, and aligning the various systems in the best possible way.