The annual Swiss unemployment rate rose to 3.3% in 2016, a 0.1 point increase on the previous year, according to figures released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) on Tuesday. This may appear insignificant compared to the average European unemployment rate of 9.8% but it hides the very real problem of those forced to make up for the financial loss faced by their employers due to the strong franc.
A commercial court in Zurich has rejected a lawsuit against FIFA that accused the body of failing to project migrant workers in Qatar. The legal action was filed against FIFA last month by Netherlands Trade Union Confederation (FNV) on behalf of a Bangladeshi construction worker employed on a 2022 World Cup project.
The lawsuit called on FIFA to force Qatar to adopt “minimum labour standards” for migrant workers.
German airline Lufthansa plans to hire more than 3,000 new staff in 2017, most of them flight attendants, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Lufthansa Group airlines – Austrian, Swiss and Eurowings – are hiring more than 2,200 staff in total, it said. Lufthansa Technik is planning to recruit 450 new staff. 1,400 new jobs will be offered in Frankfurt and Monaco. 500 persons will work at Swiss, 200 at Eurowings and 100 at Austrian Airlines.
Lufthansa cabin crew and pilots have gone on strike several times over the last few years as the airline battles to reduce costs. Its cabin-crew union UFO said last month the latest talks over pay and working conditions had failed.
Ford is canceling plans to build a new $1.6 billion factory in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and will instead invest some of that money in a U.S. factory that will build new electric and autonomous vehicles.
Ford is investing $700 million to expand its Flat Rock assembly plant and hire 700 new workers to build self-driving and electric vehicles along with the Mustang and Lincoln Continental already produced at the Downriver site.
Fields said Ford will invest $700 million in the Flat Rock plant to make hybrid, electric and autonomous vehicles. It will also hire around 700 workers starting in 2018. In announcing the Michigan expansion, Fields noted Trump’s promise to make the U.S. more competitive by lowering taxes and easing regulations.
The forecasts on the world of Swiss labor are not positive for the coming months. According to a survey by Manpower Switzerland, the Swiss employers would not be willing to make major changes in the staff of their companies.
Over nine out of ten employers, 91%, would not intend to recruit staff in the first quarter of next year. The 5% is even expected a cut, only a 2% increase, while the remaining 2% did not express an opinion.
The overall balance is negative for the first time in the past decade, staring at -2%, down 3% both on an annual and quarterly basis.
The Eurozone unemployment rate declined to 9.8% for October from a revised 9.9% for September, which was originally reported as 10.0% and was also lower than the consensus forecast of 10.0% for the month and it was the lowest recorded rate since July 2009.
Statistics agency Eurostat said Thursday that there were some 15.9 million people without jobs in the euro zone in October, down 190,000 from September and 1.8 million fewer compared with October 2015. However, the youth unemployment that applies to those under 25 years of age held steady at 20.7% in October.
Engine maker Rolls-Royce is axing 800 jobs in its marine division as weakness in the struggling oil and gas sector takes its toll. The UK-based firm said it was too early to say where the jobs axe would fall.
Its marine business employs 4,800 people globally with around 400 in the UK, of which half are based in Bristol and the remainder across offices in the Midlands and a manufacturing site in Dunfermline, Scotland.
Rolls said the job cuts will be made next year as part of an overhaul to make annual cost savings of around £45 million to £50 million. The unit’s workforce has already been slashed from 6,000 in 2015.
In the third quarter of 2016 the employment has continued to grow in Switzerland, with a more moderate pace than in the previous quarter. The jobs have grown by 0.3% over the same quarter last year, to 4.918 million.
In the secondary sector, employment fell by 1.2% to 1.081 million. The decline affected both the manufacturing business (-1.1%) than that of the construction (-1.7%). In the service sector instead there was a growth by 0.7%, to 3,836 million, as reveals the employment barometer published on Tuesday by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
The health sector (+ 2.6%) continued to advance, though not as in the previous quarter (+ 3.3%). Meanwhile the hotel industry and catering (-1.5%) and the one of financial activities and insurance (-1.0%).suffered a fall in employment.
