As skills shortages continue, and Swiss employers increasingly look overseas for new staff, people based in the alpine nation now have a large amount of leeway when it comes to choosing where to work. Now, a new survey by an online recruitment agency has revealed that 60 percent of people can imagine switching jobs in Switzerland this year.

Six in 10 Swiss workers can imagine switching jobs in 2023

According to the survey, produced by digital recruitment platform onlyfy by Xing and given exclusively to Blick, a majority of people in Switzerland want to switch careers in 2023. Of those surveyed by the agency, 60 percent could imagine changing jobs.

Blick added that the employment situation in 2023 is a “godsend for workers”, as the lowest unemployment rate for 20 years (2,1 percent) has coincided with an all-time record skills shortage. The newspaper argued that this puts workers in the driving seat when looking for new opportunities and when negotiating higher salaries and more flexible working hours.

Inflation the main driver of salary growth in Switzerland

When asked what the primary factors behind job switches and salary increases were, a majority of respondents cited rising inflation and the loss of purchasing power over the last year. This was followed by the fact that people feel like they have been given “more responsibility” because of the lack of staff, and that they are being paid “below market value” for the work they do.

Interestingly, 35 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds surveyed said that the current shortage of workers has emboldened them to ask for higher wages, as they believe their status at work is more secure. However, this phenomenon seems to only be the preserve of young people, with only 15 percent of those over 50 seeing things the same way.