In the upcoming quarter, the general majority of Swiss employers neither plans to hire new staff nor to reduce job offerings. In the hospitality industry however, things are looking much different, as shown by a recent survey conducted by job service Manpower.
Almost 90 percent of the 750 participating Swiss employers were not expecting any changes in their staff, said the researchers. The remaining 10 percent were evenly split between expectations for an increase and decrease in staff size. With this data, Manpower forecasts a stagnation in employment rate for the general Swiss labor market.
Considering the strong Franc and the resulting problems for all companies, the company manager Patrick Maier views it as a positive trend: “Most employers are willing to keep up their current staff during the next months.”
On an international level, Switzerland’s expected stagnation would lead to a rather weak position. According to the researchers, most countries display an upward trend, the strongest being seen in nations such as India, Taiwan, Japan, USA or Romania.
The detailed results show that employers in the north western parts of Switzerland expect an increase in staff, while those in Zurich expect a decrease. Large corporations are more likely to make new hires than mid- and smaller-sized companies. The construction industry is expected to see an increase in the amount of employees, while the hotel industry is expected to experience a decrease.
Thus, the survey confirms the forecasts of previous studies. With -14 percent, the hospitality industry receives the least favorable net labor market forecast within the survey. This value is the lowest result since 2009, making this sector the one with the largest losses on a yearly and quarter-yearly scale.
Compared to its neighboring countries, Switzerland’s hospitality industry forecast is not unusual. In Austria and France, 10 and 13 percent of jobs are supposed to be cut respectively. The only other country with a worse value is Italy with minus 25 percent. Germany’s employment is more stable, but in this survey, its hospitality industry was aggregated with values from the production industry.
