Even total employment, expressed in full-time equivalents (FTE), rose 1.2 percent, as the Federal Statistics Office (BFS) announced on Thursday. But compared to the previous quarter, there was hardly any change: the number of people employed remained stable, the number of FTEs (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 0.3 percent.
While the number of employed men increased by 1.4 percent compared to the previous year, the number of employed women decreased by 0.1 percent. In addition, more foreign workers were employed in Germany. Their employment increased by 3.7 percent. By contrast, employment in Switzerland fell 0.6 percent.
Unemployment was also lower in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). The unemployment rate, which was 5.1 percent last year, became 4.3 percent. With 212,000 unemployed, there were 41,000 less unemployed in absolute terms.
However, the figure increased compared to the second quarter: the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent after 4.1 percent in the second quarter, according to the ILO. However, it fell 0.1 points in seasonally adjusted terms.
This takes Switzerland too far in an international comparison. For example, the unemployment rate in the EU was 6.0 percent in the third quarter and 6.6 percent in the euro area. However, the official figures from SECO assessing the number of people registered with RAV look even better. According to them, unemployment in Switzerland fell to a 20-year low in October. The latest rate was 1.9 percent, 2.0 percent in the third quarter, and 1.9 percent in July and August.
According to the ILO, the number of long-term unemployed has also decreased significantly. In the third quarter of 2022, 77,000 people were unemployed for at least a year – 30,000 less than in the same quarter of the previous year. Thus, the rate of the long-term unemployed in the total number of unemployed decreased from 42.4 percent to 36.4 percent.
(SDA)