🧭 Grass Brief

300’000 new jobs, and yet it is getting harder: What the Swiss labour market is really saying in 2026

July 13, 20266 min readDennis Gorican

At the beginning of July, SRF published an assessment that sounds reassuring at first glance. The Federal Statistical Office (BFS) examined the development of the Swiss labour market over the past five years, from the fourth quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2025. The result: around 300'000 new jobs. More people are working in Switzerland than ever before, 5.4 million in employment.

Anyone reading only the headline might conclude that this is a good moment to be looking for a position.

Anyone reading the data behind it sees a different picture. And for executives in career transition, it is precisely this second picture that matters.

The jobs miracle is losing its shine

The same BFS analysis shows that growth slowed markedly over the course of those five years. The labour market has lost momentum. In 2022, there were still 123'000 vacancies in Switzerland. By the end of 2025 the figure was 86'000, and continuing to fall. That is a decline of around 30 per cent within three years.

At the same time, unemployment is rising. In May, 140'000 people were registered with the regional employment centres, almost ten per cent more than in the previous year. Companies are contending with global uncertainty, and artificial intelligence is reshaping job profiles across many sectors. The consequence, according to SRF: companies have become more cautious in their recruitment.

For jobseekers, this combination means something very concrete: more people are competing for fewer advertised positions. The market has not collapsed. But it has become more selective, and noticeably so.

A two-speed market

Perhaps the most important insight from the data is the shift in demand. According to the University of Zurich, the shortage of skilled workers has eased somewhat, but not evenly. Demand is strong for specialists in healthcare, construction and technical fields. It is declining, by contrast, in administrative, IT and financial occupations.

This deserves a moment of attention. The areas with falling demand, administration, IT and finance, are precisely the areas in which many executives and senior managers have built their careers. The Swiss labour market is growing where operational and people-intensive work is required, and cooling where classic management careers are at home.

For our clients, this means that the headline labour market figures say little about their own situation. Anyone coming from a finance or IT function is operating in a segment that behaves differently from what the headline suggests. The 300'000 new jobs are real. They have simply, for the most part, not been created where experienced executives are looking.

What the figures mean for the hidden market

When the number of advertised positions falls by 30 per cent while the number of people searching rises, it intensifies a dynamic we write about regularly in this brief: the visible market narrows, and the hidden market becomes more important.

At executive level, the public advertisement has always been closer to the last step of an appointment process than the first. In an environment in which companies recruit more cautiously, this effect is amplified. Positions are filled internally, awarded through networks, or not created at all until the right candidate is already known. Anyone basing their search on job advertisements is competing for a shrinking segment of the market, against growing competition.

The practical consequence is the same one we work through with our clients every day: in this market environment, the Right 100 are not an optional instrument but the principal channel. Visibility, clarity of positioning and well-maintained relationships determine whether you hear about opportunities before they are advertised, or only enter the process once the decision has effectively already been made.

The demographic constant behind the fluctuations

For all the cooling, it is worth looking at the structural level. A significant driver of job creation in recent years has been the retirement of the baby boomer generation, and that effect continues. The number of foreign nationals in the labour force rose by 15 per cent over five years to two million, while the number of Swiss nationals in the labour force stagnated in practical terms. Without naturalisations it would even have fallen.

This confirms what we described in our Grass Brief on the focus50plus study: over the next ten years, Switzerland will lose around 400'000 more workers to retirement than will newly enter the market. The current caution among companies is cyclical. The shortage of workers is structural. Both are true at the same time.

For experienced executives, this is an important piece of context. The current market phase is demanding, but it is a phase. The demographic reality behind it works, over the medium term, in favour of everyone who brings experience, networks and judgement, provided they remain visible and relevant until demand normalises again.

A side detail that is nothing of the sort

Real wages rose by 1.6 per cent in 2025, the largest increase since 2009. And part-time work among men has increased by three percentage points within five years.

Both are signals of a labour market that is changing not only quantitatively but qualitatively. Flexible models are becoming more normal, including for men in advanced career phases. For executives in transition, this opens up scope that barely existed ten years ago: part-time mandates, interim roles, portfolio careers. Anyone directing their search exclusively at the classic full-time permanent position is ignoring a growing part of the actual market.

What we take from this

The BFS five-year review tells two stories at once. The first: the Swiss labour market is fundamentally healthy, employs more people than ever, and will need experience for years to come on demographic grounds. The second: the immediate market phase is the most demanding since the pandemic, with fewer advertised roles, more people searching and cautious companies, particularly in the occupational fields where executives are traditionally at home.

Anyone who knows both stories searches differently. Not more anxiously, but more precisely. Less through advertisements, more through relationships. Less in breadth, more with clear positioning. And in the knowledge that the market's current caution says nothing about your own worth, but everything about timing.

The market is not closed. It has become more discerning. The answer to that is not more activity, but more precision.

Sources: SRF News, "300'000 neue Stellen, Jobwunder nach Corona verblasst langsam", 4 July 2026; Federal Statistical Office, employment and jobs statistics, Q4 2020 to Q4 2025; University of Zurich, data on the skills shortage; BFS, wage development 2025; focus50plus / Alixio Group Schweiz, "Arbeitskräfte 60plus im Fokus der Unternehmen", 2026; Swiss National Bank, Employment Outlook, July 2025.