The unemployment rate in Switzerland fell to an annual average of 2.2% in 2022 compared to the previous year (3.0%). This is the lowest level recorded for more than 20 years, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) reported in its monthly statement on Monday.
The unemployment rate fell below the 2.0% mark more than 20 years ago with 1.7% recorded in 2001. This indicator fell at an annual rate, but rose compared to the previous month. In December alone, this rate thus reached 2.1%, once morest 2.0% in November. At the end of December, 96,941 people were registered with a regional employment office, ie 5,614 more than in November.
Adjusted for seasonal effects, the indicator fell to 1.9% during the month under review and thus deviates from the consensus forecasts of the AWP agency, whose estimates were at 2.0%. The increase in unemployment is less marked over one month in the 15-24 age group (+1.6%, or 140 more people) than in the 50-64 age group (+4.2%, or 1,185 people more), detail the federal economists.
Less partial unemployment
According to Seco data, almost 167,904 people were looking for work in Switzerland in December, almost 3,408 more than a month earlier, but almost 41,772 less than last month. same period in 2021.
The reductions in working hours (RHT) affected 1,894 people, or 369 more (+24.2%) than the previous month. The number of companies having resorted to partial unemployment fell by 3.3%, that of lost working hours increased by 14.7%.
In addition, 1,798 people exhausted their rights to unemployment insurance benefits during October, according to provisional data provided by the unemployment funds.
ats/gma
