No. 158, January

KOF labour market expert Michael Siegenthaler talks about the winners and losers of the COVID-​19 pandemic and discusses the outlook for wages and employment once the crisis has subsided.

The main reason for the persistent gender differences in the labour market is the unequal distribution of unpaid work. This leads to women doing less work than men, which has a negative impact on their performance in the labour market.

At the height of the coronavirus crisis, 1.35 million individuals in Switzerland were working short time. A recent special study by KOF looks at how those on short-​time working used their extra free time in 2020.

The KOF Business Situation Indicator hardly rose visibly at all in December. Business activity at the companies surveyed was predominantly encouraging (see Chart G 7). These firms are almost as confident about their future prospects as they were in the previous month. However, uncertainty about the outlook for business going forward is increasing again slightly. The Swiss economy recovered strongly over the course of 2021 and, overall, was in a healthy position towards the end of the year.