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New figures show that the shortage of skilled workers has reached a new high in Switzerland. You can find out how badly your professional group is affected in your region here.
We show you:
- How strong Your professional group is in demand on the Swiss job market.
- which professional groups have the greatest deficiency.
- How the staff shortage differs between the regions.
Specialists are most urgently needed in healthcare professions, as the skills shortage index of the personnel service provider Adecco and the Swiss job market monitor of the University of Zurich show. Doctors, in other words, but also nurses and pharmacists. For the most part, these are academic professions that require a university degree.
“You can see very clearly with the specialists that the demand has increased,” says Marcel Keller, Managing Director of Adecco Switzerland. “The higher the qualification, the higher the demand.” It is surprising that more and more lower or non-qualified specialists are being sought. Those responsible have also set a new high throughout Switzerland this year.
Like doctors, computer scientists and engineers are still in demand. In general, specialists in the technical field have good starting conditions when looking for a job: Polymechanics, mathematicians, electricians or finance and business administration specialists also find more offers than their competitors.
In some professional groups there are not too few but too many job seekers. In the social sciences and cultural fields, for example, there is an oversupply of skilled workers. These include lawyers, museum scientists, social workers, pastors, professional athletes and journalists. Secretarial staff are also looking for more jobs than there are vacancies.
Too many executives
The statistics also show that Switzerland has too many managers. They are among the occupations with the second largest oversupply. There are two main reasons for this, as the job monitor at the University of Zurich explains to SRF News: First, the occupational category is defined very broadly in order to be statistically meaningful. It includes, for example, managing directors, hut wardens and gallery owners.
Secondly, by no means all managerial positions are published. Much more important when filling managerial positions are direct contact or the search via networks: the famous “vitamin B”. Labor market expert Marcel Keller estimates that around 90% of positions in top management are not advertised at all.
There are a number of professions in which supply and demand are in balance: These are, for example, manual trades, sales, marketing and public relations as well as finance and accounting.
Differences between the language regions
Striking: The index also shows a difference between the language regions. While there is a shortage of skilled workers in 13 occupational groups in German-speaking Switzerland, this is only the case for two in Latin-speaking Switzerland: health specialists and software developers.
The shortage of skilled workers is less pronounced in western Switzerland because unemployment is higher
Marcel Keller from Adecco explains it like this: “Basically, you can say that there is more on offer in western Switzerland because unemployment is also much higher. Compared to the canton of Zurich, which is 1.6 percent, the canton of Geneva is 3.8 percent.”
For Marcel Keller it is clear that the shortage of skilled workers across the country is significant – and it will lead to changes: “Companies will have to apply to the candidates and no longer vice versa.”