Job market

The cabinet has endorsed plans to impose a gender quota for boards and managements of listed Swiss companies as part of a wide-ranging legal amendment to be discussed by parliament.
The bill includes a minimum 30% quota for women on company boards and at least 20% for members of company managements. Over the issue Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga said “The cabinet agreed that rules are necessary.”

The discussions is coming up after last week, during UN committee in Geneva; the panel of experts said it welcomed Swiss progress since the last report in 2009. Overall, Switzerland needed to develop a ‘comprehensive national gender strategy’, it said.

UBS and Credit Suisse send clear signals: cutting costs is the first step, possibly within the year.

Q3 results showed, in fact, that the two banks are still spending too much. UBS saw its revenue shrink losing revenue from the wealthy customers and restless showing on the face of trading. Income, in practice, have fallen faster than the process of reducing the part of the bank charges. Instead Credit Suisse had almost reached the target in 2016, but in the third quarter expenses were up 2%.

The unemployed registered at employment offices at the end of October, were 144.531 in Switzerland, or 1.856 units more than the previous month, according to figures released by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). However, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.2%, confirming the trend from May. At the beginning of the year it was 3.6%.

The labor market in Switzerland shows signs of slowing down: the employment indicator calculated by the economic research center at ETH Zurich (KOF) remains in negative zone and is fixed for the fourth quarter of the year at -3.7 points while three months ago it was at -1.2 points.

BSI planned a series of layoffs, as reported yesterday by leaders of the bank’s to RSI television: cutting 14 employees (out of a total of 1,200 employees in Switzerland) are not part of a restructuring process, as "Dismissal it is an ordinary measure developed over time due to poor performance."

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits remained at its 43-year low last week, official figures showed on Thursday. According to the US Department of Labor, initial jobless claims held at a seasonally adjusted 246,000 in the week ended October 8, while market analysts anticipated a slight increase to 252,000 during the reported period.
The preceding week’s figure was revised down to 246,000 from the originally reported reading of 249,000. It was the 84th consecutive week of initial claims remaining below the 300,000 level, the longest streak since 1973.

Deutsche Bank plans hiring freeze in order to cut costs and face the growing legal fees after the US Justice asked for $ 14 billion to close the dispute linked to the story of subprime mortgages.

The measure – writes the agency Bloomberg citing sources inside the German bank – would take effect immediately and covers all divisions, with the exception of some control functions.

Theresa May outlined a vision for Britain after Brexit in the speech to Tory conference during its annual convention yesterday. British Prime Minister said the vote for Brexit was a rejection, not just of the European Union, but of an entire social and economic order. “It was about a sense – deep, profound and let’s face it often justified – that many people have today that the world works well for a privileged few, but not for them.