Swiss Skills Shortage Index 2025

Collage of three scenes: an engineer with a laptop in a factory, a group of healthcare workers walking in scrubs, and a construction worker measuring inside a concrete frame.

Swiss Skills Shortage Index 2025: noticeable decrease in the skills shortage recorded for the second year in a row

After two unusually strong years, the Swiss labour market returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, but the situation has noticeably deteriorated again in 2025. The economic slowdown has accordingly resulted in the skills shortage easing for the second year in a row. In 2025, the Skills Shortage Index lay around 22 percent below the previous year’s figure, once again approaching the pre-pandemic level. 
Swiss Skills Shortage Index, Job Index and unemployment rate

Skills shortage declines significantly

The index is around 22% lower than the previous year and is increasingly normalising. The number of vacancies has fallen by 8%, while the number of registered job seekers has risen by 17%. The unemployment rate has increased from 2.3% to 2.8%.

The study’s key findings

Shortages concentrated in a few occupational groups 

Only 4 of the 32 occupational groups still show a clear imbalance between supply and demand: healthcare professions, site management, technical specialists and electronics-related professions. In all these groups, the shortage has decreased compared to the previous year. 

AI-exposed professions show a skills surplus 

Occupational groups highly exposed to artificial intelligence, such as office, administrative and ICT professions, have seen the sharpest declines in vacancies, while unemployment has risen in these groups. This has resulted in a skills surplus in these professions. 

Demographic change exacerbates shortage in healthcare 

The ageing population is increasing demand for medical staff. At the same time, cost pressures are forcing hospitals to improve efficiency, impacting workforce structures. 

Regional differences 

The decline is more significant in German-speaking Switzerland (-23%) than in Latin Switzerland (-17%). The index fell most sharply in Zurich (-29%) and north-western Switzerland (-26%), while eastern (-15%) and south-western Switzerland (-16%) recorded more moderate declines. 

Top 4 occupational groups with skills shortage 

  1. Healthcare specialists (e.g. specialist doctors, qualified nursing staff, pharmacists): continue to top the ranking, partly due to the ageing population. 
  2. Foremen, site supervisors and production managers (e.g. site managers, painting foremen, mechanical engineering managers, electrical engineers): remain in second place, likely due to strong demand in the construction industry. 
  3. Engineering and comparable specialists (e.g. mechanical engineers, systems engineering, automation and business process technicians): move up to third place in 2025 despite the challenging situation in the MEM industry. 
  4. Electricians and electronic technicians (e.g. electrical fitters, electrical engineers, service engineers): follow in fourth place, driven by robust order levels in construction.