KOF Employment Indicator hits new high

The KOF Employment Indicator continues on its highly positive trajectory in the second quarter. After rising sharply to 12.2 points (revised from 11.5) in the first quarter of 2022, the indicator has hit 14.8 points in the second quarter. This is the highest value that the KOF Employment Indicator has ever reached. The current level of the indicator suggests that we will see very encouraging employment trends across all sectors over the coming months.

The KOF Employment Indicator is calculated from the quarterly KOF Business Tendency Surveys. The evaluations for the second quarter of 2022 are based on the responses of more than 4,500 firms that were surveyed in April about their employment plans and expectations. On balance, the companies surveyed reckon that their current staffing levels are too low and would like to increase their workforces in the next three months. The indicator value suggests that we will see strong employment growth in the Swiss labour market over the current and coming quarters.

All sectors surveyed plan to increase employment significantly

The positive employment outlook is broadly based across all sectors. After several sectors had already achieved very high indicator values from a historical perspective in the previous quarter, these values have actually been exceeded in some cases during the current quarter.

The KOF Employment Indicator for the hospitality industry is performing particularly well. While the hospitality businesses surveyed in the first quarter were still expecting to see a slight reduction in employment this quarter, a clear majority of the firms polled in the latest survey now think that their current staffing levels are too low. They also expect to see an increase in employment over the coming months. Never before has the KOF Employment Indicator registered a similarly high positive value for this sector.

According to KOF’s surveys, the employment outlook also remains very encouraging in the construction sector, project engineering, wholesaling, and banking and insurance. Although the KOF Employment Indicator for manufacturing has fallen slightly compared with the last quarter, even here it remains at a relatively high level.