The latest results from the Federal Statistical Office show that flexible working or working from home is more common than it was ten years ago. Overall, employees are also less afraid of losing their jobs. On the other hand, the feeling of doing useful work has fallen slightly, particularly among young people.
Wages and weekly hours
First of all, the question of purchasing power: the median wage has risen by 5.4% since 2013. The average number of weeks' holiday remains at 5 for employees, compared with 3.5 for the self-employed. On the other hand, the average number of contractual hours per week for a 100% employee has fallen from 41.5 hours to 40.2. In addition, 228,000 more people have been subject to a collective labour agreement since 2013 (1,970,300 compared with 1,742,100).
Home-office on the rise
The COVID crisis has unsurprisingly increased flexibility at work and extended the possibilities for working from home. As a result, 38% of respondents say they are able to stay in home-office at least occasionally, compared with 27% in 2017. In addition, 47% have flexible working hours, 5% more than in 2013. With regard to the tendency to commute, 8% of respondents live more than an hour's commute from their workplace; ten years ago, this represented 10% of workers.
Atypical work and women's work
Atypical jobs remain common. 6% of the average population work at night, 27% on Saturdays and 16% on Sundays. 8% of workers∙s have an on-call contract, and 7.2% a fixed-term contract. They are 16% to work evenings, and this figure even rises to 22% among young people aged 15 to 24. In addition, 10% of women hold down a double job, compared with 5% of men. For 1.6% of them, the second job is in addition to their main 100% job, compared with 1.1% in 2013 - a consequence of the rising cost of living? The proportion of working women with children under the age of seven has risen by 6% in a decade (74% in 2013 compared with 80% today).
Job security and pension provision
At a time when there is a shortage of skilled labour, 54.8% of respondents find it easy or very easy to find a comparable job if they are made redundant, compared with 47.8% in 2012, and 90% of them are not particularly worried about losing their job. While job security is therefore moving in the right direction, the Swiss seem to be more concerned about their retirement: 55% of them (average between Swiss and foreigners) will be contributing to a third pillar in 2021, compared with 42% in 2011. The 5% increase in the rate of employees contributing to the second pillar is also encouraging (93%). Among the self-employed, however, only one person in five contributes.
Young people in search of meaning
The 15-24 generation is the only one to be more worried about redundancy today than ten years ago. 44% of young people say they lack autonomy in their jobs, compared with 30% across all age groups. Furthermore, one in four young people do not find their work useful; in 2012, this rate was estimated at one in five. It should be noted that the proportion of workers who feel that their work is meaningful has fallen by 2% since 2012.
