Enquiries, Sources – 03 - Employment Statistics (ES)Overview

Short description	The Employment Statistics provide important structural and economic information that can be used to monitor the labour market. Everyone working in Switzerland is covered by these statistics. Persons in employment are those who carry out an economic activity as defined by the national accounts for at least one hour per week. The ES were created in 1977. General figures go back as far as 1948. Other, more detailed figures as far as 1960.
Responsible agency	Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Responsible service	Labour Force
Responsible person and information	Thierry Murier, 032 713 63 63, thierry.murier@bfs.admin.ch
Conducted by	Federal Statistical Office (FSO)
Legal basis	Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992, art. 10
Type of enquiry	The ES are mainly compiled from the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS). Other data is provided from the Cross-border Commuter Statistics (CCS), the central information system on migration (SYMIC), the job statistics (JOBSTAT) and other sources. The number of persons in employment according to the SLFS is used as a basis for the calculation to which is added the number of employed persons according to other sources who are not part of the permanent resident population. Thanks to JOBSTAT, figures can be broken down by economic branch (NOGA).
Statistical basis and units of enquiry	Employed population according to domestic concept
Features registered	Employed persons. Quarterly and annual averages: Sex x nationality/residence permit Sex x economic sectors (NOGA) Sex x economic branch (NOGA) Sex x major regions Economic branch x major regions Sex x nationality x age groups (as of 2010; 1991-2009: 2nd quarter) Sex x nationality x age groups (as of 2010; 1991-2009: 2nd quarter) x = combined with
Degree of regionalisation	Switzerland and major regions
Date survey conducted	Quarterly and annual averages
Periodicity	Quarterly statistic
Available since	1948
Statistical quality of data	Coefficient of variation of 0.6% for all employed persons (2nd quarter 2010). An indication of the coefficients of variation for data by sex, nationality, residence permit and economic branch is given in the quarterly press releases "Swiss Labour Force Survey and its derived statistics".
Revision	2003, 2007, 2010 Remarque: The ES and the Job Statistics (JOBSTAT) approach the labour market from different angles but with related concepts: Persons employed for the ES and jobs for the JOBSTAT. For more information on the differences between these two statistics: Comparison available in French and German
Last Update	27.01.2011

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