Online Program

Job vacancy statistics in Switzerland : a 20-year perspective

Keywords: job vacancy statistics, employment, methodology

Data collection on job vacancies started in 1992 in Switzerland as a part of the Swiss quarterly busi-ness survey. The 2011 survey is based on a sample of ca 66’000 local units (17% of the total popula-tion) and encompasses ca 66% of the total number of jobs. It covers all regions of the country and all sections of the NACE Rev. 2 (except for the agricultural sector). Data are collected using three chan-nels: files for large companies, online and paper versions of the survey. In this paper we will present the progressive steps that led to the actual survey, how initial defaults were corrected, how non-response is treated, how variance is estimated and how seasonal adjustment is performed. The re-sults will be analysed and presented with respect to the major economical cycles of the two last dec-ades. They show that job vacancy statistics provide early and accurate indicators of major trends and changes in employment development.