Where Swiss companies are still hiring in 2026
Permanent placements fell 23.3% in 2025 and the skills shortage eased for the second year running. Four job groups are the exception. Here is where demand is, and what it means for recruiters.
2025 was a hard year for recruitment in Switzerland. Fewer companies hired, more people looked for work, and agencies felt it in both permanent and temporary placements. The numbers also show clearly where demand is still strong, and that is useful if you run an agency.
The market in three numbers
- Permanent placement: turnover fell 23.3% in 2025, after an already weak 2024.1
- Temporary work: hours worked fell 7.1%, the third yearly decline in a row.1
- Skills shortage: the Adecco and University of Zurich index fell about 22%. Open positions dropped 8%, the number of job seekers rose 17%, and unemployment went from 2.3% to 2.8%.2
Where demand is still strong
Only 4 of 32 job groups are still short of people in 2025.2
- Health specialists: doctors, nurses, pharmacists. First in the ranking every year since 2022, driven by an ageing population.
- Site managers, foremen and production managers: construction site managers, painting foremen, mechanical engineering managers, electrical engineers. Construction has a solid order book.
- Engineering technicians: mechanical engineering, systems and automation technicians. This group moved up a place despite weak export demand.
- Electricians and electronics technicians: electrical fitters, electromechanics, service technicians, again pulled by construction.
Office, admin, ICT and finance roles moved the other way, towards more applicants than openings.2 swissstaffing also reports that construction and household services, including senior care at home, grew in 2025.1
In short: fewer companies are hiring, but the ones hiring in these four groups still struggle to fill roles. That is where a search mandate is easiest to win right now.
What it means for an agency
- Timing matters. A good moment to get in touch is when a role has been open for weeks or keeps being re-posted. By then the company has usually tried to fill it alone.
- Specialists stand out. Switzerland has 6,976 licensed placement and staffing agencies, 1,852 of them in the canton of Zurich, and about one in three lists 16 or more sectors.3 Being known for one of the four groups is a clear difference.
- The low point may be close. swissstaffing's members expect business to bottom out in 2026, and 79% of those surveyed expect a flat or rising trend over the next six months.1
Where to start this week
- Pick one of the four groups that you already place.
- List 30 companies in your region with open roles in that group, and note how long each ad has been online.
- Contact the hiring manager at the ones open longest, with a candidate you could put forward.
Finding those companies and booking the first call is the work Velra does for recruitment agencies, if you would rather not do it by hand.
Sources
- swissstaffing, Swiss Staffingindex 2025 annual results, press release of 29 January 2026, presseportal.ch.
- Adecco Gruppe Schweiz and Stellenmarkt-Monitor Schweiz (University of Zurich), Fachkräftemangel Index Schweiz 2025, press release of 27 November 2025, adeccogroup.com (PDF).
- SECO register of licensed private placement and staffing agencies (VZAVG), counted on 13 October 2026, vzavg1.admin.ch.