Update 11:50 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The maximum number of days an unemployed person can receive state help could be reduced from 400 to 260 days for under-55s, while childless under-25s might see their entitlement reduced to 130 days of benefits, and job-seekers under 30 would be obliged to accept jobs for which they may be overqualified if measures voted by Switzerland’s lower house become law. These are some of the measures Switzerland’s lower house of parliament. The National Council voted for the measures Wednesday 9 December in an effort to slash the budget of the heavily indebted unemployment insurance agency by another CHF210 million after the upper house had already pared it by about CHF575m.
The measures need to be reconciled with the version previously voted by the Council of States before becoming law.
Law-makers have tried to avoid increasing the pay-roll tax that finances unemployment benefits. Doris Leuthard, the Swiss economy minister, has said that the payroll tax will go up in 2011.
Bern 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 percent, month-on-month.
Links to other sites: Le Temps, National Council debates, Finance ministry, TSR
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 10 December 2009.
Filed under: Politics
Tags: Council of States, Doris Leuthard, National Council, SECO, unemployment benefits
December 10th, 2009 at 11:10 am
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