It’s official: unemployment up in Switzerland

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government announced Wednesday morning 9 December that unemployment in Switzerland rose to 4.2 percent in November, from 4.0 percent in October. The increase of 5,812 new jobless workers is up dramatically compared to the figure a year earlier, +52.3 percent.

The number of companies resorting to partial unemployment, a traditional Swiss solution to ease companies through economic downturns, has also risen sharply, with 3,561 businesses using this in September 2009 (latest figures), compared to 56 in September 2008.

New figures lie behind last week’s cut in Swiss immigration permits

The new figures follow an announcement by Bern 4 December that the number of work permits for non-EU (European Union) residents will be cut in half, compared to 2009 permits, a measure designed to fight rising unemployment.

Immigration from EU countries fell by more than 24 percent during the past six months, compared to the same period a year earlier. A total of 2,000 B permits will be delivered in the first half of 2010, as well as 3,000 short-term permits. The government will review the situation in June 2010, the Federal Council says, and decide if it will maintain immigration quotas at that level.

Posted by Ellen Wallace on 9 December 2009 at 11:12 | permalink
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News story, GenevaLunch, 9 December 2009.

Filed under: Business

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  1. GenevaLunch » Blog Archive » Swiss lower house votes to cut jobless benefits Says:
    December 10th, 2009 at 11:53 am

    [...] announced earlier in the day Wednesday that unemployment rose by 5,812 people in the month of November, and that the overall rate had climbed from 4 to 4.2 [...]

  2. GenevaLunch » Blog Archive » Economy still fragile, central bank leaves rates unchanged Says:
    December 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    [...] Background:“Swiss unemployment climbing, fewer foreigners’ permits“, 9 December 2009, GenevaLunch [...]

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.