2010 proved to be another very challenging year for the Swiss recruitment market as hiring managers and employers remained cautious about the overall economic outlook.
The first half of the year saw the financial services industry continuing to stabilise, which led to slight increases in recruitment levels within the banking sector. We have also seen significant growth in the commodities industry, especially among the larger firms.
While ongoing restructuring programmes resulted in little change to hiring volumes in the commerce industry for most of the year, we did see an increase in the last quarter – especially in the FMCG sector. As competition for talent intensified, counter-offers from employers looking to retain their best talent became more commonplace.
A number of companies remained committed to moving their headquarters to Switzerland, which led to high demand for CFOs, tax specialists and controllers.
As candidate confidence grows and the market remains stable, we expect to see an increase in recruitment volumes throughout 2011 across all market sectors.