The unemployment rate in Switzerland rose sharply in April, dropping from 2.9% to 3.3% in one month, as the coronavirus pandemic weighs heavily on the economy. This level had not been reached since March 2017.
The unemployment rate for the month under review came out at the bottom of the forecast range. Economists polled by AWP expected a rate between 3.2% and 3.9%.
In absolute numbers, the number of unemployed people jumped 43% from March to 46,115 people, said Thursday the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) in a statement.
Little regional difference
The progression was more or less homogeneous at the demographic and geographic level. The number of unemployed thus increased by 0.3 percentage point to 2.8% in the German-speaking part of the country and by 0.5 point to 4.5% in French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.
The increase was 0.3 point to 2.4% among the Swiss and 0.6 point to 5.8% among foreigners.
Seco also provided details on partial unemployment in February, before the start of the health crisis. During the month, reductions in the work schedule affected 4,048 people, 331 more (+ 8.9%) than in January. The number of companies using such measures increased 27.5% to 227. (ats / nxp)
Created: 07.05.2020, 07:55
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