Zurich, 24th January 2017. According to the Michael Page Swiss Job Index advertised job vacancies, year-on-year (January 2016 – January 2017) grew by +33,6%. This is the strongest year-on-year start to the New Year, since the index commenced in 2012 and nearly three times higher than the average for this period. The number of advertised jobs across Switzerland between December 2016 and January 2017 showed a slight decrease (-1,3%) which is typical of the seasonal decline over this period.

The winning sectors – showing the highest monthly (December 2016 – January 2017) growth were:

 Sectors showing the Highest Growth in Advertised Jobs
(December 2016 - January 2017)
 
1.Medtech+ 4,4%
2.NGOs;+ 4,0%
3.Aerospace+ 2,4%
4.Research+ 2,0%
5.Wholesale and Logistics+ 1,8%

According to Charles Franier/Nicolai Mikkelsen, “We are already seeing strong demand for specialists in the following areas – pharma, medtech and biotech, fintech, digital marketing, sales, compliance, audit and risk as well as interim managers and contractors.  We expect this trend to continue in 2017”.

The German-speaking region showed the highest year-on-year growth (+34,9%) compared with the Swiss Romande which showed a growth of (+25,3%). Advertised jobs in both regions declined slightly between December 2016 and January 2017 (-1,5% and -0,1)% respectively).

The Northern region was the only area to show a significant, positive growth between December 2016 and January 2017. This region has a strong focus on industrial manufacturing as well as health and life sciences. All regions showed significant year-on-year growth, led by the Eastern region (+55,0%).