Switzerland

1.Series

Title:

Registered unemployed; Job vacancies announced; Registered job-seekers; Unemployment compensation beneficiaries.

Starting year:

1936.

2.Agency making the initial registrations of unemployed persons

Name of the agency:

Office régional de Placement - ORP (Regional Placement Office).

Type of agency:

Public service under a national authority.

Name of the national authority:

The basic rules are defined at the national level and the application is the responsibility of the cantons.

Location of the local offices making the registrations:

All over the country, via the regional offices for placement.

Type of services provided/administered by the agency:

Assisting job-seekers to find jobs;

Assisting job-seekers to establish their own business;

Assisting employers to find workers;

Job-related training.

3.The following information is registered about a person:

Name;

Sex;

Social security number (or similar identification number also used by other agencies);

Address of usual residence;

Date of birth;

Citizenship;

Nationality/ethnic group;

Educational/vocational attainment, with three categories distinguished. Links to ISCED have not been established;

Current/past activity status, with ten categories distinguished;

Type of work (occupation) of past or present job with 15,000 categories distinguished. Links to ISCO-88 have not been established;

Type of work (occupation) of job sought, with 15,000 categories distinguished;

Name and address of present or previous employer or work place;

Type of business (industry) of present/previous employer/workplace, with 220 categories distinguished. Links to ISIC-rev.3 have not been established; the classification used is the NOGA, derived from the NACE;

Previous registrations with the agency/service;

Language skills.

4.Criteria used for inclusion of a person in the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Being without work (S);

Seeking work (R) and (S);

Availability for work (S);

Age (lower limit: 15 years; no upper limit) (R) and (S);

Being resident in the country (foreigners must have a work permit) (R) and (S);

Other: the person has to register him/herself with a regional office (ORP) (R) and (S).

5.Criteria used for exclusion of a person from the registers (R) and/or the statistics of unemployed persons (S):

Death (R) and (S);

Taking up residency abroad (R) and (S);

Commencement of a (new) job, therefore no longer available (S);

Commencement of military service (S);

Participation in an employment promotion scheme, public works programme, etc (S);

Studying or undergoing training (S);

Failure to contact the agency/service: after two months, an inactive file is generally crossed off. In principle, a job-seeker should have at least two interviews per month with an adviser from the ORP (R) and (S);

Inability to work: sickness, accident, imprisonment, etc. (S).

6.Definition of unemployed persons used for the statistics

Registered unemployed: persons registered with a regional placement office, who are without a job and are immediately available for a placement, receiving unemployment compensation or not.

Those who are looking for a full-time job are called fully unemployed, and those who are looking for a part-time job partially unemployed.

7.Updating of the registers

The registers are regularly updated, on a continuous basis.

8.Unemployment rates

Statistics from the registers are used to obtain unemployment rates. The source of data on employed persons who are part of the denominator of the unemployment rates is the population census.

Definition of employed persons for this purpose:

Persons aged 15 years and over who are working six hours or more per week.

9.Type of statistics of unemployed persons produced

Series 1:

Number of job-seekers and changes (fluctuations).

Reference period:

Month, year.

Frequency of production:

Monthly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Occupation;

Industry;

Geographic characteristics;

Previous work experience;

Citizenship (nationals/non nationals);

Duration of unemployment.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website: www.seco-admin.ch

Agency responsible for publication:

Secrétatiat d'Etat à l'Economie - SECO (State Department of Economy).

Title and periodicity of the publication:

Situation sur le marché du travail (Situation on the labour market), monthly.

Series 2:

Number of unemployed.

Reference period:

Month, year.

Frequency of production:

Yearly.

Descriptive variables used:

Sex;

Age;

Occupation;

Industry;

Geographic characteristics;

Previous work experience;

Citizenship (nationals/non nationals);

Duration of unemployment.

Form of publication:

On paper, for general audience.

Agency responsible for publication:

Office Fédéral de la Statistique - OFS (Federal Statistical Office) and SECO.

Title and periodicity of the publication(s):

Le chômage en Suisse (Unemployment in Switzerland), yearly.

10.Methodological information about the statistics

Form of release:

On paper, for general audience;

On a website: www.seco-admin.ch.

Agency responsible for the release:

SECO.

11.Comparisons with unemployment statistics from other sources

Comparisons have been made with unemployment statistics from the labour force survey.

Frequency of the comparisons:

Occasionally (latest year: 1999).

Publication of the methodology/results of the comparisons:

These have been published.

Title of the publication containing the methodology/results of the comparisons:

Indicateurs du marché du travail 1998 (Labour market indicators 1998, OFS, Neuchâtel 1999, isbn.3-303-03113-4; (page 42).

12.Major changes since the start of the statistics

Major changes in legislation, capacity of the agency and/or administrative procedures took place in 1982, 1995 and 1997. The resulting changes in the statistics are not known.