Foreign residents in Switzerland have taken to social media and forums in recent weeks to express their dismay at how difficult it is to find a new job this autumn. Experts, however, suggest there are opportunities.
Even though Switzerland’s unemployment rate is much lower than in the eurozone – 2.8 percent versus 6.3 percent – job seekers here say they have had difficulties finding work.
As one person wrote in Facebook group for foreign residents: “I have been seeing a lot of posts recently related to not finding a job in Switzerland. Why is that so?”
Some respondents talked of being out of work for months or taking a year to find a job.
Others speculated on the reasons why it light be hard to find work in autumn 2025. “Global economic turmoil”, “Trump’s tariffs”,” the need for language skills”, or just simply “it’s a small country with a lot of skilled people”, were given as possible reasons why foreigners would struggle to find work.
To find out what the current situation is – and whether jobs are really becoming scarce – The Local asked Adecco Group Switzerland, a recruiter that is familiar with the latest job market trends, to shed some light.
This is what they said.
‘Challenging times’
“In general, the labour market is facing challenging times due to geopolitical and economic uncertainties, as well as increased costs and weak exports,” Adecco’s spokesperson, Sophia Zuber, told The Local.
“We observe that the amount of job posting is generally decreasing this year, compared to 2024,” she noted, adding that “companies seem to be cautious in making personnel decisions.”
In fact, according to the Swiss Job Market Index conducted by the Adecco Group and the University of Zurich, the labour market “has been showing signs of fatigue since 2024,” with the number of job vacancies nationwide dropping by 11 percent.
Which professions are most affected?
Adecco’s data shows that the biggest decline (31 percent) is in the IT sector, followed by business administration (24 percent), and office specialists (12 percent).
Technology, industry, and science professions are also less in demand in Switzerland in 2025.
However, as Zuber pointed out, the downturn is limited to some professions only, while the demand is still high in others.
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This is where jobs are still available
“There are some sectors in which skills shortage is a real problem, especially in healthcare, production, and engineering,” Zuber said. “Three of the 14 professional groups saw a rise in jobs.”
They are, according to to Adecco’s Job Index for the second quarter of 2025 (April, May, and June), graduate health professions, such as doctors and qualified nursing staff – where the demand grew by 9 percent.
There has also been 7 percent more vacancies in such diverse sectors as midwifery specialists, opticians, caretakers, and firefighters, as well as a slight increase (1 percent) in a demand for managers.
“Graduate science professions, such as chemists, bioscientists, and engineers, on the other hand, did not see any change in the number of job vacancies in the first half of 2025,” Zuber said.
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What is the forecast for the future?
There has not been much change in the third quarter of 2025 – from July to September – in terms of which sectors are hiring and which are not, Zuber said
Looking further ahead, the news is not very good for the employment market, and Switzerland’s economy (which generates jobs) in general.
According to KOF Economic Institute, “the outlook for 2026 has worsened owing to the deterioration in competitive conditions caused by US tariffs and ongoing heightened economic uncertainty.”
KOF’s forecast is based on the assumption that some Swiss exports to the US will remain subject to a 39 percent import tariff, which means employment will grow by only 0.3 percent – “the lowest growth rate since 2020.”
Consequently, in 2026, the unemployment rate is likely to rise to 3.2 percent.
READ ALSO: US tariffs threaten ‘up to 20,000’ jobs in Switzerland
