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Foreigners bear brunt of Swiss jobless increase

Malcolm Curtis
Malcolm Curtis - [email protected]
Foreigners bear brunt of Swiss jobless increase
Foreigners account for just over a fifth of Switzerland's population but pie chart from Seco report shows almost half of jobless are non-Swiss (Ausländer).

The Swiss unemployment rate worsened in October after remaining unchanged for the three previous months as foreign workers lost jobs, according to figures released by the federal government on Friday.

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The country’s jobless rate rose to 3.1 percent from three percent in September and 2.9 percent in the same month a year earlier, the state secretariat for economic affairs (Seco) said.

Foreigners accounted for most of the higher rate, with 5.8 percent of non-Swiss out of work in October, up from 5.6 percent the previous month.

The jobless rate for Swiss citizens remained unchanged at 2.2 percent.

The total number of people registered for unemployment benefits increased to 133,443 in October, up 2,372 from the previous month.

The number of job seekers, meanwhile, jumped to 188,536, 4,795 more than in September, Seco said.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged in the cantons of Zurich (3.1 percent), Basel City (3.6 percent), Bern (2.3 percent) and Geneva (5.5 percent).

Graubünden posted the biggest increase, rising to 1.9 from 1.2 percent, followed by Ticino (4.5 percent, up from 4.2).

The cantons of Nidwalden (0.9 percent, down from one percent) and Obwalden (0.9 percent, up from 0.7 percent) recorded the lowest unemployment rate, while Geneva continued to hold down the highest rate.

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