Swiss banks are hiring again, with job adverts rising

Swiss banks have started looking for staff again. In July the country's ten largest institutions published 586 job adverts, 14% more than the previous month. The figure comes from an analysis by the employment portal Indeed carried out for the financial news agency Awp.

The growth is not evenly spread. Raiffeisen increased its adverts by 24%, reaching 206 open positions, the highest number in the group. UBS recorded a rise of 27%, for a total of 61 positions. Pictet grew by 53% with 26 adverts. Banca Migros shows the largest percentage change at 263%, though from a very small base, reaching 40 positions.

A recovery from a historic low

Comparison with previous months helps to interpret the figure. In May the sector had hit a historic low with 482 adverts.

The background remains the period following UBS's acquisition of Credit Suisse. Consolidation reduced the number of posts on offer and made job hunting harder for those working in banking.

Comparison with the recent past shows the gap still to be closed. Three years ago the institutions considered offered more than a thousand positions between them. Of these, 239 were at UBS and 138 at Credit Suisse, two banks that today form a single group.

The current level of hiring therefore remains below that of the time, despite July's recovery.

For Italian-speaking Switzerland, banking accounts for a significant share of skilled employment, particularly in the Lugano area. The national trend in job adverts gives an indication of the direction of the market, without saying how much of that demand concerns the Ticino offices.