The phrase “Waiting for service personnel” is now standard on the windows of taverns. A new study shows the size of the skilled worker shortage in Switzerland with new clarity: it worsened by 68 percent in a year.
This is the result of the skills gap index of the recruitment agency Adecco and the University of Zurich. In the last survey a year ago, the Swiss economy was still dominated by the corona pandemic. This brought a brief respite to the shortage of skilled workers.
Now the staff shortage is coming back in full force. The index reached a new record with 155 points. It is not only passing the crisis years, but also well above the pre-pandemic level.
health, informatics, industry
According to Adecco, the staffing gap is most noticeable in the healthcare professions. This also means that hospitals and clinics recruit from abroad in a targeted manner. According to the Swiss Health Observatory, a third of nursing staff comes from abroad. The study’s authors predict that it will also become increasingly difficult to recruit overseas, as there is also a growing vacancy due to an aging workforce.
Female computer scientists rank second among the occupations with the highest skilled worker shortage. Classical industrial engineers, such as mechanical or electrical engineers, rank third. But there is also a great need for polymechanics and locksmiths.
wet guillotine shifts
According to the survey, even groups that used to have trouble looking for a job are now doing better in the labor market: unemployment among the 50s and over has fallen by a quarter, and among the long-term unemployed by almost half. Earlier research had already shown that the guillotine age is sliding upwards due to the lack of skilled workers.
The shortage of skilled workers in German-speaking Switzerland has worsened much more than in Latin-speaking Switzerland.
But there are also areas of occupations that are not affected: for example, among unskilled workers (including in the kitchen or in agriculture and forestry), where there are more unemployed than jobs. But even for them, job search has become easier due to the lack of skilled workers.