The number of jobs is increasing slightly less rapidly for SMEs than for all commercial enterprises.
The number of SMEs (commercial enterprises) present in Switzerland (598,772) decreased by 0.15% over one year in 2020 (2019: 599,686) but increased by 9.8% compared to 2011 (545,400), while the number of jobs (3,035,739) decreased by 1% over one year (2019: 3,069,129) and increased by 5.7% since 2011 (2,873,193).
The evolution over one year is the same when commercial enterprises of all sizes are taken into account (-0.15% compared to 2019). A similar trend is observed for the workforce of all companies (-1.1% compared to 2019 and +7.3% compared to 2011).
Difficult historical comparisons
It should be noted that the method used by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) to count the number of companies in Switzerland changed with the introduction of the new Structural Business Statistics (STATENT). It is impossible to directly compare the figures from the STATENT (since 2011) with those of the Federal Business Census, completed in 2001, 2005 and 2008.
However, as part of the first STATENT publication, the FSO applied an assessment model based on the new definitions and recalculated the data for 2005 and 2008. According to these calculations, the total number of enterprises in Switzerland increased by 3.6% from 2005 to 2008, and only 0.2% from 2008 to 2011. The number of full-time equivalent jobs increased by 7.6% from 2005 to 2008, and then by 4.3% from 2008 to 2011.
Source: FSO, Structural Business Statistics (STATENT), August 2022.
