No. 136, January

Towards the end of 2019, the business situation of Swiss companies slowed down again (cf. G 4). The Swiss economy is held back by the sluggish trend in the manufacturing industry. By contrast, the construction industry and numerous service sectors reported a stabilisation of the business trend. Overall, the difficult international environment continues to place a strain on the Swiss economy.

The euro area economy will pick up some momentum, according to three research institutes: ifo in Munich, KOF in Zurich, and Istat in Rome. Economic growth will rise from its low rate of 0.2% in the third quarter of 2019 to 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2019. The institutes expect the euro area economy to continue to grow by 0.3% quarter on quarter in each of the first two quarters of 2020.

Recently, there has been lively debate about Switzerland’s role in international tax competition. The author of this article investigates the phenomenon of ‘socio-spatial segregation’, one of the effects of inter-cantonal tax competition. ‘Socio-spatial segregation’ refers to the geographical concentration of households which are similar in terms of criteria such as income, wealth, age or ethnicity.

Since July 2018, companies have been required to register any vacancies in professions with unemployment levels of more than 8% with the regional employment offices (RAV). As of 1 January, this threshold was lowered to 5% and the classifications of reportable professions were narrowed down. Despite the lower threshold, the effective scope of the job registration requirement has declined. On top of this, the bigger weight of the building sector will affect implementation.