Employment rises in the first quarter of 2026
(17.06.2026) The Swiss labor market showed a positive trend during the first three months of the year. Total employment increased by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
Swiss businesses had 5.537 million jobs in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of 26,100 compared with a year earlier. The number of full-time equivalent jobs reached 4.323 million, corresponding to a year-on-year increase of 13,900 (+0.3%). There were 2.301 million part-time jobs, 69.3% of which were held by women. Women accounted for 46.8% of the workforce.
Growth was driven almost exclusively by the tertiary sector, which added 25,000 jobs (+0.6%), bringing the total to 4.409 million. The secondary sector recorded only marginal growth, with an additional 1,100 jobs (+0.1%) compared with the first quarter of 2025, bringing the total to 1.129 million.
The number of vacancies also rose to 98,200, up 4,700 from a year earlier (+5.0%). This increase was recorded in both industry (+6.8%) and services (+4.5%). At the same time, the shortage of skilled labor appears to be easing: 34.3% of companies reported recruitment difficulties in the first quarter of 2026, down two percentage points from the previous quarter. Conditions improved in both sectors, with the proportion of businesses reporting recruitment difficulties falling by 0.5 percentage points in the secondary sector and by 2.4 percentage points in the tertiary sector.
The outlook for the coming months remains encouraging. In the first quarter of 2026, 11% of companies expected to increase their workforce, up from 10.1% in the previous quarter, while only 4.8% expected to reduce staffing levels, compared with 5.2% previously.