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WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

Where are the jobs in Switzerland for English speakers?

Switzerland seems to offer it all for the international worker - a very high standard of living, great pay, excellent infrastructure and stunning natural beauty in the heart of Europe. The question is, are they hiring? 

Published: 22 February 2024 15:38 CET
Trams in Zurich.
Trams in Zurich. The Greater Zurich area has a lot of potential for jobs. Image by Markus Krebs from Pixabay

We examine what you’re most likely to find a job doing as an English-speaker in Switzerland, and get an insight on the job market from one sector popular with new arrivals.

What and where – theoretically – are the jobs? 

Thanks to a combination of geography – being right in the middle of Europe – politics and history, Switzerland is a country where a number of large companies and research organisations are based. 

Banking, of course, is a Swiss strength. UBS and Raiffeisen are two local powerhouses, but there are also a significant number of private banks catering to an affluent clientele. 

Most global banks also have one or more offices – many of them in the nation’s financial capital, Zurich. 

Pharmaceuticals are another area in which Switzerland excels – it constitutes around five percent of the country’s gross domestic product. 

Swiss pharmaceutical giants include Roche and Novartis, with smaller, more specialised companies numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands.

READ ALSO: ‘10,000 job vacancies’: Where are workers in Switzerland most needed?

Many of these are based in or near the city of Basel, and as a consequence, many international pharmaceutical companies also have a presence there. 

The so-called ‘Health Valley’, stretching from Geneva eastwards towards Montreux is also home to over a thousand companies in the medical and life sciences field.  

Switzerland is also a leader in research and education, with several universities among the world’s top-ranked for research and innovation. 

Top employers in scientific research include the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, the University of Zurich, the University of Basel and the University of Bern.

Leading business schools such as the International Institute for Management Development, the University fo St Gallen and the Swiss Business School also employ a significant number of educators and international support staff. 

Signs of trouble? 

If you’re an IT worker, however, be wary. Despite the relative concentration of executive-level and research jobs within Switzerland, the events of the last few years have seen tech jobs take a beating. 

Greg Tomasik, founder of job board SwissDevJobs.ch told The Local: “The IT job market is currently much worse than in the beginning of 2023. 

“Starting in 2020 there was a big bull run in the job market, up until mid 2022. After that, the bubble started losing air. 

“Currently, there are around 30 percent less open roles compared to the beginning of 2023. On the other hand, the average number of candidates per job doubled, from 14 to 28.”

If you are seeking tech-related jobs, however, one area does stand out. 

Greg continues: “The Greater Zurich area remains the main economic hub in Switzerland. It is also where most of the tech roles are located. 

“We also see some rise in crypto-related roles in Zug area since most of the crypto companies are located there.”

Greg Tomasik, founder of SwissDevJobs.ch

With more candidates for fewer jobs, Greg has some focused advice for those looking for a Swiss tech job.

“Try to make sure that you fit the essential requirements. In the application, try to highlight that you meet the requirements and add a few sentences why you are applying specifically to this company,” he said. 

“Only a small fraction of candidates do it, and you will definitely stand out if you go to the effort. 

“One more thing, especially for junior candidates: learn the AI coding tools and stay on top of current trends. Tools like Copilot replace much of the work that was previously done by junior software engineers, and now they also need to adapt.”

READ ALSO: Why is Switzerland’s chronic labour shortage worsening?

Member comments

  1. It’s a good description of what is available. I would add that the UN agencies and NGOs around Geneva sometimes have jobs for English speakers, and also that there are a lot of international sports federations in Switzerland, many of which work mostly in English.

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WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

Do the Swiss really work the most hours in the whole of Europe?

Over 8.1 billion hours were worked in Switzerland in 2023, making them the country with the longest weekly working hours in Europe. Or does it? It all depends on how you look at the data.

Published: 25 July 2024 16:46 CEST
Do the Swiss really work the most hours in the whole of Europe?

The latest statistics from Switzerland’s federal statistics office (FSO) show that weekly working hours increased 1.8 percent in 2023 compared with the previous year.

But to draw international comparisons, some adjustments have to be made to how the working hours are calculated.

The methodology used excludes anyone who is absent for a full week from the data, meaning that the working hours appear significantly higher.

There were more absences of a week or more in Switzerland in 2023 than in the previous year, so more people were excluded using this calculation, meaning that Switzerland came out on top in Europe for the country with the most working hours.

According to this calculation, Switzerland’s average full-time working week was 42 hours and 33 minutes.

At the other end of the spectrum, Finland had the shortest working week in 2023, with 36 hours and 29 minutes.

But it’s not quite that simple.

If you look at the data overall – including those people who had absences – then you get a slightly different picture, and number: an average working week of 40 hours and 12 minutes.

The data also shows that, perhaps unsurprisingly, farmers work more than other working people, putting in an average of 44 hours and 23 minutes each week.

Construction workers, on the other hand, have the shortest working weeks, with 39 hours and 42 minutes of hard graft.

And the longer-term trend looks different, too: over the last five years, working hours have actually dropped.

Between 2018 and 2023, the actual weekly hours worked by full-time employees fell by 46 minutes on average, to 40 hours and 12 minutes. 

But these statistics still don’t tell the full story.

If we look at the data in another way, we get a different picture again.

For example, if you work out the hours worked based on the total number of employed (full- and part-time) people, Switzerland was one of the countries with the shortest actual working hours per week in 2023, with 35 hours and 30 minutes.

This is because Switzerland has lots of part-time workers.

Greece had the longest weekly working hours (39 hours and 48 minutes) and the Netherlands the shortest (30 hours and 33 minutes), while the EU average was 35 hours and 42 minutes.

If we change the parameters to look at the total volume of weekly working hours in relation to the total population (15 years and older), then because of its high employment rate, Switzerland’s back to being one of the countries with the longest actual weekly working hours, with 23 hours and 1 minute.

Iceland recorded the longest working hours here (25 hours and 31 minutes) and Italy the shortest (16 hours and 34 minutes). The EU average was 19 hours and 26 minutes.

Statistics, don’t you love them?

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