Tag Archives: Education

Switzerland made the the top 5, after dropping from 4th to 5th, in this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index. Switzerland’s decline was largely due to a down weighting of a factor where it is strong, according to WEF’s Saadia Zahidi. Solar Impulse 2 – an example of Swiss innovation – © Ryan Fletcher | Dreamstime.comThe Global Competitive Index measures performance in 114 areas that influence a nation’s productivity. Productivity, a measure of how much value is...

In 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson argues for the kind of values instilled by a socially conservative parental home: Aim for paradise, but concentrate on today. Meaning is key, not happiness. Assume responsibility. Listen carefully, speak clearly, and tell the truth. And stand straight, even in the face of adversity. Here they are, Peterson’s 12 rules: Stand up straight with your shoulders back Treat yourself like you would someone you are responsible for helping Make friends with...

Every year, Lausanne-based IMD business school publishes its global competitiveness ranking. Switzerland climbed from 5th last year to 4th behind Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Venezuela (63rd) was last. © Bogdan Lazar | Dreamstime.com The ranking, established in 1989, incorporates 235 indicators and takes into account a wide range of “hard” statistics such as unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and education, as well as “soft” data from an survey of business leaders...

Switzerland invests heavily in public education in terms of spending per student and as a share of public expenditure. (Keystone) Swiss teachers are still working too much unpaid overtime, particularly in German-speaking Switzerland, according to a new survey by two major teachers’ associations. “Swiss teachers have the highest number of working hours of all OECDexternal link countries and work unpaid overtime for...

A recent report places Switzerland second in a ranking of 33 european countries on conditions in the youth labour market in 2016 – youth are those between 15 and 24. © Auremar | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s overall score of 5.67 out of 7.00 is close to Denmark’s 5.72. Switzerland’s highest scores are for employment rate (6.01) and working conditions (5.77), with education (5.36) and smoothness of transition to work (5.52) coming in lower. This version of the report is focused on the skills...

A recently published study ranks Switzerland 10th on gender pay gap. Switzerland’s gap of 17% is bigger than Italy’s (5.3%), Luxembourg’s (5.5%), Belgium’s (6.1%), Sweden’s (13.3%), Spain’s (14.2%), Denmark’s (15%), France’s (15.2%) or the Netherlands’ (15.6%), but lower than Finland’s (17.4%), Portugal’s (17.5%), Austria’s (20.1%), the UK’s (21%) or Germany’s (21.5%). © Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com Confusion around aggregate pay gap figures leads some to conclude women are getting paid...

A recent report shows only 34% of young Swiss are concerned the jobs they take will eventually disappear compared to 79% in the US, 74% in Brazil and 76% in Singapore. © Sheng Zhang | Dreamstime.com The main worry is the impact of rapid technological change. Fear levels are mirrored in the response to another question: what kind of job would you like to have? Jobs in IT and tech are viewed as extremely attractive by the vast majority of young people in the US (75%) Brazil (72%) and Singapore...

In the second quarter of 2018, the number of jobs in Switzerland rose to 5.048 million, a 2.1% increase on the second quarter of 2017. © Catalin205 | Dreamstime.com Regions rising the most were Lake Geneva (+3.0%), north west Switzerland (+3.0%), central Switzerland (+2.4%) and Zurich (+2.1%). Rises in job numbers in eastern Switzerland (+1.6%), Mittelland (+1.3%) and Ticino (0%) were lower. Sectors with the highest vacancy rates were IT (4.0%), information and communications (3.1%) and...

A new book by Bryan Caplan. It’s the signalling case.

Speaking to Tages-Anzeiger, Cornel Müller, director of marketing at x28, Switzerland’s largest job search aggregator, said there was a large jump in the number of jobs available in Switzerland compared to one year ago. © Hongqi Zhang (aka Michael Zhang) _ Dreamstime.com At the end of 2017, 178,000 vacant posts were advertised, 22,000 more than at the end of 2016. The meta search company, which aggregates job ads posted on other websites, estimates that only 3 out of 10 jobs are advertised, so...