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.
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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 electronics and watch making (3.0%). All were up sharply since Q2 2017.
Finding qualified staff was increasingly difficult in sectors such as electronics and watch making, where 40% of jobs were difficult to fill with qualified graduates. Other sectors faced with the same challenge include IT (31%), information and communications (35%) and financial services (32%).
The least challenging field was arts and entertainment where only 3% of jobs were difficult to fill with qualified graduates.
The regions worst affected by a shortage of qualified graduates were Zurich (20%), north west Switzerland (17%) and Lake Geneva (16%) – percentages of positions filled with difficulty in Q2 2018.
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