Labour market regions are regions where the majority of the working population lives and works: The majority of the working population does not leave this region to go to work. The labour market regions cover the entire national territory. Unlike agglomerations, they are not necessarily tied to a large urban centre.

101 Labour market areas
Switzerland was newly divided into 101 labour market regions in 2018. These living and working areas have been defined based on the commuting patterns of employed persons from home to work. This new statistical definition is available for regional and national analyses and will help shed light where needed at a micro-regional level. This method resulted in ten cross-border labour market regions, which are concentrated in the Geneva region, the Jura Arc and Ticino.
For labour market regions, the minimum proportion of workers living and working in the same region must be above 50%. In order to allow users to make a detailed analysis and to ensure a certain continuity with the previous spatial division in MS regions, this minimum percentage has been set at 57%. The largest urban regions (regions around Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern and Lausanne) have also been subdivided and the most densely populated municipalities (Zurich, Geneva and Basel) are considered as independent labour market regions.
Their size varies greatly depending on their location (lowland/mountainous region) and their proximity or distance from urban centres. The largest labour market regions have several hundred thousand inhabitants (Zurich: 409 241; Aarau-Olten: 336 421; Baden: 282 266), the smallest have a population in the four-digit range (Scuol: 6219; Faido: 6228; Zweisimmen-Lenk: 9627). Large differences can also be observed in terms of area. It ranges from 16 km2 (Geneva) to 1470 km2 (Ilanz/Glion region in Graubünden/Grisons).

16 Large labour market areas
The 101 labour market regions have been divided into 16 large labour market regions, offering users other possibilities for analysis at macro-regional level.
For the 16 large labour market regions, the minimum proportion of employed persons living and working in the same region must be more than 70%.