In 2018, almost 70,000 additional jobs were counted in Switzerland, bringing the total to more than 5.2 million. As in the previous years, the tertiary sector, which accounted for some 4 million jobs in 2018, contributed greatly to this increase. Between 2011 and 2018, the number of people employed in the service sector grew by an average of 50,000 per year. In the secondary sector, employment remained virtually unchanged at around 1.1 million jobs over the period. Since 2011, the primary sector has lost more than 10,000 jobs. That is an average of 1500 jobs per year.

Dynamics within tertiarisation

The development of employment varied according to the branch of activity. Some service sectors recorded a decline despite increasing tertiarisation. With more than 10% of employees in 2018, wholesale and retail trade are among the most important sectors of the Swiss economy. However, they have been declining since 2011. More than 3500 jobs were cut in the wholesale sector and as many as 12,500 in the retail sector. However, these losses have been more than offset by other, particularly dynamic services. These include the economic sectors of "health" and "education and training", which recorded an increase of around 75,000 and 36,000 jobs respectively in the period from 2011 to 2018.

Regional differences

In 2018, the number of employees increased in all major regions of Switzerland. The Espace Mittelland continues to offer the most jobs with around 1.1 million employees (+0.9%), but it is not quite as dynamic as the Greater Zurich Region (+1.7%) and the Lake Geneva Region (+1.9%), where the greatest increases were observed between 2017 and 2018. At cantonal level, employment grew more strongly in the cantons of Nidwalden (+3.2%), Jura (+2.7%), Zug (+2.5%) and Geneva (+2.5%) than the Swiss average (+1.3%).

A more differentiated picture emerges in the development of the number of workplaces. With an increase of 1.3% in 2018, the Lake Geneva region was well above the Swiss average (+0.4%). Conversely, the number of workplaces in north-western Switzerland (-0.6%) and eastern Switzerland (-0.1%) developed negatively.