Major industrial, trading and service companies

Swiss economy
The Swiss economy has always been highly integrated into the global economy: its per capita import and export volumes and its import and export rate (as a percentage of GDP) are among the highest in the world. Exports play a particularly important economic role for a small country such as Switzerland. Switerzland’s main partners in the cross-border trade of goods are the industrialised countries; 76.3% of its imports come from these countries and 59.9% of its exports go to them (status 2008). Trade with the EU plays a particularly important role: it accounts for 66.1% of imports and 45% of exports. Switzerland’s most important trading partner is Germany, followed by the United States, Italy and France.

Proportions
In 2013, some 563,000 private enterprises were counted in Switzerland. Over 430,000 of them are in the services (tertiary) sector, while the industrial (secondary) sector has over 90,000 companies and the primary sector around 56,000. More than 99% of enterprises in Switzerland are SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), i.e. enterprises with fewer than 250 employees (calculated as full-time equivalents); about 87% are micro-enterprises, i.e. with fewer than 10 employees. The average size of enterprises is around 8 employees.

Comment:
The industry indicated is that to which the company’s main activities relate. In some cases, however, industries cannot be assigned uniquely.