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2009 Unemployment figures for Switzerland: Seco

Update 17:55  Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Unemployment in Switzerland rose in December to 4.4 percent, up from 4.2 percent the previous month. Neuchatel and Geneva rose to 7.2 percent, the highest rates in the country, while canton Valais had the largest single month increase. 1.1 percent. Vaud’s rate in December was 5.9 percent.

Ed. note: Geneva, reports the Tribune de Geneve, argues that the federal statistics are skewered because they use data from 2000 for the canton’s working population. The canton in fact has an unemployment rate of 6.6 percent, it says.

Foreigners have been reported in the past to be affected more than the Swiss, and 2009 was no exception, with the rate for Swiss workers climbing 1 percent in December compared to 12 months earlier, but 2.5 percent for foreigners. Non-Swiss unemployed workers accounted for 46.4 percent of the total.

For the first time, jobless rates published by Seco are broken down according to nationality, although the figures provided, only in German, are limited to these groups:

• 4.0%, Germany
• 6.2%, France
• 5.4%, Italy
• 4.2%, Austria
• 8.5%, Portugal
• 10.2% West Balkans (Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Hertzegovinia, Macedonia, Albania

The addition of nationalities has sparked heated debate in German-speaking Switzerland, heating up debates about whether increased immigration from throughout Europe as part of the Schengen Agreement has led to higher unemployment. Le Temps quotes Serge Gaillard, spokesperson for Seco, as saying that the figures show otherwise, and that increased rates are more closely linked to developments in specific industries.

Zurich accounts for more than 18 percent of the country’s unemployed, while Vaud has 11.4 percent of the total and Geneva 9.2 percent. The construction and hotel/restaurant industries had the highest percentages of unemployed, followed by commercial workers.

Seco, the Economics Ministry, published December as well as overall 2009 unemployment figures Friday 8 January. The jobless rate for the year, 3.7 percent, was the highest since March 1998, although Seco notes that the sharp climb from 2008, with an average rate of 2.6 percent, was linked to 2008 having the lowest figures in the previous six years.

The number of unemployed persons grew by nearly 50,000 in 2009.

Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fre), Reuters, TSR (Fre)