Swiss unemployment falls in May

Official unemployment numbers show there were 144,778 people registered as unemployed across Switzerland at the end of May 2016, 4,762 fewer than in April. This decline took the unemployment rate from 3.5% to 3.3%. Despite this improvement, there were 8,429 more without jobs than in May last year when the unemployment rate was 3.2%.

The highest rate of unemployment of 4.3% was among those between 30 and 34 years old. Only 3.0% of those aged between 15 and 24 were registered as unemployed and only 3.1% of those aged 50 and above were.

The largest contrasts were between the latin and German speaking Swiss regions. Unemployment in May in the German-speaking part was 2.9% while in the French and Italian speaking regions it was 4.4%. Stubbornly higher unemployment persisted in Neuchatel (5.7%) and Geneva (5.4%).

A greater percentage of foreign nationals (6.4%) were out of work than Swiss (2.4%).

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