A new analysis from CH Media has revealed which companies in Switzerland employ the most workers. While international companies are the biggest job creators overall, public firms offer the most work domestically.

Who employs the most workers in Switzerland?

To create the study, CH Media - the owners of Watson and various regional newspapers - analysed companies by how many jobs they offered at the end of 2024. These include both public and private employers, and work offered both domestically and around the world.

For comparison purposes, each company was ranked based on the number of full-time workers on the payroll. As of the end of 2024, the 20 largest employers are responsible for 1,9 million full-time positions across the cantons and overseas.

Swiss supermarkets and public sector have the most staff

Starting with jobs in Switzerland, the study found that Migros is the largest employer in the country. Arguably the largest supermarket in Switzerland, it has a workforce of 85.000 people, of which 65.000 are estimated to be full-time employees.

Interestingly, second place was taken by Canton Zurich - this is because 52.614 people work full-time in the region’s school system and hospitals. Migros rival Coop completed the podium with 49.851 employees as of the end of 2024.

Barring the two supermarkets and Swiss bank UBS, the rest of the top 10 were all public employers. The federal government took fourth place in the ranking, followed by public transport provider SBB and the postal service.

10 largest domestic employers in Switzerland

In all, here are the 10 largest employers within Switzerland itself:

1. Migros (65.000)
2. Canton Zurich (52.614)
3. Coop (49.851)
4. Federal government (36.000)
5. Swiss Federal Railways (34.680)
6. Swiss Post (33.322)
7. City of Zurich (25.085)
8. Canton Bern (20.288)
9. Canton Vaud (20.271)
10. Canton Geneva (18.589)

Nestlé employs the most staff worldwide

However, this picture changes dramatically when looking overseas, with confectioner Nestlé taking first place. Though it does not feature in the top 20 for domestic employers, the company still employs 275.000 people full-time across the world. 

Logistics and shipping giant MSC followed in second place, with 200.000 workers stationed worldwide. Commodities company Glencore and engineering firm ABB completed the top four, sporting 140.000 and 109.900 full-time staff respectively. In all, here are the Swiss companies that employ the most workers overall:

1. Nestlé (275.000)
2. MSC (200.000)
3. Glencore (140.000)
4. ABB (109.900)
5. UBS (108.648)
6. Roche (103.249)
7. SGS (99.200)
8. Coop (83.959)
9. Novartis (75.883)
10. Kühne+Nagel (75.304)

To see which other companies made the top 20, check out the piece from Watson (in German).

Thumb image credit: Michael Derrer Fuchs / Shutterstock.com