The Adecco Group Swiss Job Market Index charts the development of the number of job vacancies advertised in Switzerland. This makes it an integral part of Switzerland’s overall economic development. The GDP measures a country’s economic activity. The graph below shows that an increase in investments and consumption favours a rise in advertised vacancies. In contrast, private consumption increases when the economic situation and employment prospects have positive forecasts.
The graph shows the development of the job index and the GDP over time. The GDP is calculated based on the expenditure for investments and consumption and was altered for optical comparison in such a way that the value stands at 100 in the 1st quarter of 2008. Over time, the comparison reveals a very strong correlation between the two measured values (correlation of 0.92). From 2003 to 2008 and from 2011 to mid-2014, both values increased at almost the same rate. However, as the graph also demonstrates, the job index rose somewhat more in comparison to the GDP, which is based on a much higher number of factors. Whereas the GDP increased at an almost ongoing pace, job advertisements displayed sharper decreases during times of economic uncertainty (such as 2009 and 2015).