The number of workers in Switzerland is almost 4.5 million, compared to a population of 7.7 million in 2009. The employment rate is 65.6 percent.
The participation in the labour market of women (59 percent) and of older people (76 percent) is comparatively high. Part-time work is also more common than in most EU countries (13 percent of men and 59 percent of women). At 41.6 hours, the weekly working hours are a good hour over the EU average.
71 percent of workers are employed in the service sector, 25 percent in industry and trade, and about four percent in agriculture. Switzerland is rather more heavily represented in the service sector than the EU average.
The foreign population is highly significant in the Swiss labour market. Over a fifth of those who are in permanent employment are foreign nationals (870,000). A good two thirds of them originate from EU countries. At almost four percent, workers from Italy and the western Balkan countries constitute the largest groups of foreigners, followed by Germans at 2.7 percent and the Portuguese at 2.6 percent.
In addition to the permanent foreign population, a good 55,000 short-stay workers and over 215,000 frontier workers work in Switzerland. The majority of them come from the countries neighbouring Switzerland.
In the last few years the employment of foreigners has seen a large increase. With the gradual introduction of the agreement on freedom of movement, since 2002, in particular, increasing numbers of workers have been migrating from the EU area to Switzerland, particularly from Germany and Portugal.