Tag Archives: 3) Swiss Markets and News

Switzerland’s unemployment benefits might be generous but they are strictly policed, as one recipient recently discovered. ©-Phartisan-_-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge For a period of up to approximately two years after losing a job, most workers in Switzerland receive 70% of their former salary up to a maximum of CHF 88,200 a year – the amount paid varies depending on circumstances1. To continue receiving the...

People are in favour of taxing robots if unemployment increases as a result of technological advances. Only 34% of Swiss people believe their jobs are not at risk from automation and machine learning, according to a survey commissioned by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Almost half of the 2,092 people surveyed by the Link Institute for SBC felt that some of their daily tasks could be done by machines and...

Engineering, natural sciences professions and IT professions are experiencing an acute talent shortage in Switzerland. (Keystone) Switzerland’s talent shortage is more pronounced in 2018, a new survey has found. Technical, financial, and medical professions are most affected, while job seekers in the hospitality, retail, and administrative sectors face the greatest competition. These are the results of the 2018 Skills...

Lodging and energy bills amounted to an average of 14.7% of household revenue. Swiss households spend an average of 29% on mandatory payments like taxes, social contributions and health insurance. Figures released by the Swiss Statistical Office on Monday reveal that, based on 2016 data, a Swiss household had an average income of CHF7,124 ($7,140), of which CHF2,910 was eaten up by unavoidable expenses. Of these...

The gross median monthly salary in Switzerland is CHF6,502 (2018). The pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies have overtaken banking as the best paid sectors in Switzerland, according to the NZZ am Sonntag. In 2016, bank executives took home an average gross salary of CHF220,000 ($220,394) per year, which is CHF 40,000 less than ten years ago. The pharmaceutical sector, in contrast, is paying CHF280,000. The...

Diplomats and finance ministry officials have the highest travel-related expenses, The expenses of Swiss civil servants added up to CHF 121.7 million ($122 million) last year, according to the SonntagsBlick newspaper. Counting the 34,800 full-time positions in the federal administration in 2016, that level of spending amounts to almost CHF3,500 per civil servant. The biggest spender is the defence ministry, with an...

© Andrey Popov | Dreamstime.com A government commission looking at the rate, called for a reduction to 0.75%, while unions demanded a rise to 1.25%. In the end the Federal Council decided to take the middle road and leave the rate at 1% for 2019. The rate is the minimum pension funds must apply to employment related 2nd pillar pension assets in 2019. Some pension funds are concerned about the long term effect imposed...

A Spitex employee checks on an old lady at her home in Biel, northwestern Switzerland Better at home than in a home: almost 350,000 people made use of assistance and home-care services (Spitex) last year, 10,000 more than in 2016. In contrast, the number of residents of old-age and nursing homes remained constant at 149,000, 15% of them for a short stay. Spitexexternal link, a Swiss non-profit organisation that provides...

© Leonid Eremeychuk | Dreamstime.com The high and rising suicide rate among Switzerland’s male farmers stands in contrast to the declining rate among rural men working in other professions, according to a new study by the University of Bern published by the newspaper SonntagsZeitung. The rate among rural men working outside farming is 33 per 100,000, compared to 38 per 100,000 among farmers, a rate that has risen since...

Swiss institutions are adapting to an increasingly cashless society The Swiss Competition Commission has searched the premises of Credit Suisse and UBS, PostFinance and the credit card companies Swisscard and Aduno for allegedly boycotting mobile payment methods such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. The Competition Commissionexternal link said on Thursday it had opened an investigation on Tuesday. The Swiss financial...