KOF: employment prospects improve, exceeding the long-term average
Keystone-SDA
Despite global uncertainties, the outlook for the Swiss labour market is improving. This is according to the employment indicator calculated by the KOF Institute, the economic research centre at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich.
The index stood at 2.1 points in the third quarter, up 0.5 points on the April–June period and once again in line with the +2.1 recorded in the first three months of the year, according to tables published on Monday by the KOF. The index – which is based on responses from 4,200 companies – therefore remains above the long-term average of 1.7 points.
After peaking in mid-2022, the indicator had fallen steadily for around three years, slipping into negative territory in the third quarter of 2025 for the first time since the pandemic. The recovery that began in the final quarter of last year is therefore continuing.
At sector level, the most significant rise was recorded in the retail trade, where the figure rose from -3.1 to 2.9 points quarter-on-quarter, returning to positive territory for the first time since mid-2024. In the wholesale trade sector, too, the indicator is rising, but at -1.9 points it remains in negative territory, as it has for over two years now. In the manufacturing sector, labour market tensions have eased for the fourth consecutive time and the index stands at -5.3 points, while remaining well below zero.
The hotel and catering sector, by contrast, is showing the opposite trend. The index has fallen again and, at -8.8 points, has reached its lowest level since the second quarter of 2021. Finally, the construction sector remains very positive, at 11.2 points.
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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
