News The watchmaking and micro-engineering sector continues to recruit new workers in Switzerland. On 30 September 2013 it employed 57,286 people, i.e. 1,470 more than in 2012 (+2.6%). This is the finding of the annual census carried out by the Employers’ Federation of the Swiss watch industry (CP). The branch remains optimistic therefore despite an uncertain climate, due in particular to the fall in exports to Asia and unfavourable exchange rates. After two years marked by sharp upturns (+4,255 jobs in 2011 and +3,013 jobs in 2012) the increase was more moderate last year.
The figure of 57,286 remains very high nonetheless: between 2004 and 2008 the watch industry underwent a period of major expansion, with manpower reaching a peak of 53,300 employees in 2008 before falling to 48,548 at the end of the economic crisis in 2010. Advances since the beginning of the 2000s have been phenomenal: in thirteen years, the workforce in the sector has risen by a third, representing nearly 20,000 additional jobs.
In detail, and in absolute terms, the increase in 2013 concerns primarily production staff (+806), followed by administrative workers (+339), and lastly management personnel (+245) and home workers (+80). In percentage terms, the latter two categories recorded steep increases (15% and 28.7% respectively), more particularly for home workers, whose numbers have stalled since 2008.
The leading trio of cantons with the largest proportion of watch industry workers remains Neuchâtel (15,463), Berne (11,361) and Geneva (9,546). The «Watchmaking Arc» formed by these three cantons, plus the cantons of Jura, Vaud and Soleure, is where most of the sector’s resources are concentrated, i.e. 52,020 workers (91% of the total workforce). Job increases were most evident in the cantons of Vaud (+417), Geneva (+188), Berne (+177) and Neuchâtel (+140).
The proportion of workers benefiting from a vocational diploma or higher education is 64.9%, a healthy two-point increase (62.9% in 2012). The proportion of qualified personnel increases with each new year and now represents two thirds of the workforce, compared to one third twenty years ago. Another very positive result: numbers in the «apprentices» category are up almost 10%, rising from 1,038 to 1,141 (+103). This category rose from 1.9 to 2.1% as a proportion of total manpower.
The number of firms increased significantly, rising from 564 to 572 units (+1.4%). In this context, the word firm corresponds to parent companies only. Among the fields of activity highlighted by the census, finished products make up 19.9% of the branch. Subcontracting represents 41.5%. The latter category includes polishing firms, as well as manufacturers of blanks and movements.
Companies signed up to the Collective Labour Agreement (CCT) negotiated with trades unions in the sector are largely in the majority; indeed nearly three-quarters of firms (410 units) are affiliated, employing 49,486 people. In other words, 86.4% of employees worked in firms governed by the sector-wide CCT in 2013 (86.3% in 2012). The watch industry is one of the country’s most widely covered sectors in terms of collective bargaining.
All results of the census can be downloaded in the form of a brochure from the website of the Employers’ Federation of the Swiss watch industry www.cpih.ch.
May 14, 2014
