The number of vacancies is increasing – baby boomers are retiring – the shortage of skilled workers remains – News


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Baby boomers will soon leave the job market. That has consequences.

The Swiss job market is booming. The unemployment rate is at a record low of 1.9 percent. And at 161,000, fewer people are looking for a job than ever before.

However, the good labor market data also has a downside: the shortage of skilled workers is acute. “We see this especially in the areas of IT, engineering, healthcare, but also production and logistics,” says Fabian Büsser, co-managing director of the Zurich branch of recruiter Michael Page. The number of vacancies in these sectors has risen by 30 percent in the past 12 months. For comparison: Across all industries, the increase in advertised positions was half as much.

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According to the recruiter, a quick improvement is not to be expected. On the contrary: “We expect a further tightening beyond 2023,” says Büsser.

No improvement in sight

One reason is the aging society. The ratio of employed persons to the total population, the gross employment rate, will fall from 58 to 53.7 percent in the coming decades.

Baby boomers are retiring, while those with fewer births are moving up. The year 1964 was the strongest year with just under 113,000 live births. After that, they decreased almost continuously and rose again to around 86,000 two years ago.

Bar chart showing the development of the number of live births between 1964 and 2020

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The search for skilled workers is also an ongoing issue for entrepreneurs. Railway builder Stadler Rail, for example, has around 350 open engineering positions, as Chairman of the Board Peter Spuhler says. “It’s difficult for us to fill these positions,” says the entrepreneur. Stadler Rail has started to increase the number of apprentices in the Swiss plants.

Person reaches for a job market newspaper.

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There is an urgent need for skilled workers in numerous sectors.

Keystone/Archive/PETER KLAUNZER

In addition, attempts are being made to get more women interested in technology and railways – one idea is to open crèches in factories. And employees who want to work beyond retirement age are also very welcome. Spuhler’s conclusion: “The labor market has changed, the demands placed on companies by employees have changed. We’re trying to keep up as much as possible.”

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