Despite a strong economy and solid labour market, Switzerland’s changing demographics and growing talent gap signal challenges with finding workers.
The Swiss vacancies span various sectors, including manufacturing, health, commerce, hospitality, and IT, which makes finding a fit-for-all solution to the talent gap almost impossible. Some experts point to the foreign candidate market as a remedy, while others focus on enabling and upskilling local talent. Let’s explore.
The Adecco Group’s Q2 2024 Swiss Job Market Index reports an 11% decline in job vacancies year-on-year. The demand for office, healthcare, and IT professionals has dropped significantly. Office positions decreased by 20%, and healthcare and IT roles by 19%. Conversely, job vacancies for construction and development specialists increased by 10%.
The decline in vacancies reflects a cooling job market and economic challenges, with certain sectors like healthcare still facing a skilled worker shortage despite fewer job postings.
Out of 14 professional groups, only construction and development specialists (e.g., painters, plumbers, and electricians) saw a significant increase in vacancies. Their job openings rose by 10% compared to the first half of 2023.
Job vacancies have decreased in both German-speaking and Latin Switzerland. However, the decline is more pronounced in German-speaking regions, with a 12% drop year-on-year (Q2 2023). In contrast, Latin Switzerland has experienced an 8% decrease in vacancies.
Adecco’s analysis of language demand in Swiss job ads reveals that most vacancies require knowledge of German (87%), followed by English (32%), French (23%), and Italian (4%). Notably, more than a third of adverts mention two or more language combinations as a preferred option, which makes finding an ideal candidate even more difficult.
While some may argue that this language coverage is a natural reflection of Swiss demographics and it shouldn’t be a challenge to find people speaking various languages in-country, it’s not as simple as that. Such candidates are there and up for grabs, but there’s not enough of them. The Swiss population is ageing and undergoing a big wave of baby-boomer retirement. The young worker pool of graduates currently entering the workforce is too scarce to cover the massive job demand.
Hiring foreign nationals from neighboring countries can help fill the talent gaps in Switzerland. Countries like France and Italy, facing higher unemployment rates, have a pool of skilled workers who meet Swiss language requirements.
By easing cross-border employment processes, Switzerland can attract these candidates to fill critical roles, especially in regions where multilingualism is essential. This approach not only addresses immediate labor shortages but also enriches the Swiss workforce with diverse skills and perspectives.
Switzerland’s dual education system includes academic and vocational tracks. This distribution reached almost a 50/50 ratio over the past decade. More young people choose humanities, causing a shortage of engineers and technical experts. Clerical roles are most popular within the vocational route.
There aren’t enough candidates for industrial and blue-collar training programmes. The disparity between education and skill demand is evident. Private enterprises and public institutions must collaborate to engage young people in essential professions. Schemes should showcase short-skilled sectors. They should give young people opportunities to learn about these professions. Younger workers are often unaware of the variety of professional routes available.
Another strong front associated with solving the Swiss talent conundrum focuses on enabling underutilised in-country talent, including social welfare recipients. The Swiss authorities see a massive benefit in upskilling this cohort to help them reintegrate into the job market and stay there longer. Equipping the welfare beneficiaries with the metaphoric “fishing rod” is a systemic approach to adding them to the worker pool and consequently closing the talent gap.
A comprehensive approach is essential for tackling this issue holistically. This involves not just sourcing talent when needed, but reevaluating and recalibrating the social ecosystem. By envisioning long-term strategies, we can shift the focus from merely finding and attracting candidates to strategically cultivating the required skills.
Embracing solutions such as facilitating cross-border labour, aligning education with market demands, and boosting the potential of the resident workforce will ensure a robust and adaptable talent pool. This holistic strategy will better prepare Switzerland to meet future labor market challenges and sustain its economic growth.
