Women dominate part-time employment, whereas men are witnessing an upward trend in their involvement in part-time jobs.
In recent months, Travail Suisse, the umbrella organization of employees in Switzerland, has been focusing on part-time work and has issued a position paper with 19 demands for a "modernization of the Swiss model." The organization aims to make part-time work fairer and more accessible to all.
According to the latest statistics, in 2024, 38.7% of employees in Switzerland worked part-time, with a workload of less than 90%. This figure represents a significant increase from the 25% recorded in 1991. Interestingly, the proportion of men working part-time in Switzerland has been growing faster than that of women. In 2024, more than one in five male employees (21.1%) in Switzerland no longer had a full workload.
The group of highly qualified professions in Switzerland, often referred to as "intellectual and scientific professions," has one of the highest part-time quotas, with 43.4% of these professionals working part-time. However, the new FSO survey does not provide insights into the gender distribution of these part-time workers.
On the other hand, the majority of part-time employees in Switzerland (almost three times as many as men) are women. In 2024, 1.9 million employees in Switzerland worked part-time, with 1.35 million being women. Among female part-time employees, 44% cited childcare and "other family or personal commitments" as the reason for their part-time workload. In contrast, only 15% of male part-time employees gave similar reasons in 2024.
Questions about part-time work are a recurring theme at the Beobachter Consultation Center. Part-time work often leads to negative effects such as lower wages, fewer career advancement opportunities, precarious employment conditions, or disadvantages in old-age provision.
Travail Suisse's position paper does not mention the current proportion of part-time employees in Switzerland or the proportion of men and women working part-time. However, the paper does outline goals such as making it easier to balance work and family life, improving retirement provisions, and increasing wages in low-wage industries.
Single parents are disproportionately forced into smaller workloads, and many workers in service professions such as salesperson or sales assistant, and in auxiliary occupations, work part-time involuntarily, with rates of 53.7% and 53.5% respectively.
Switzerland ranked second in Europe in terms of the percentage of employees with a reduced workload in 2024. As Travail Suisse continues to advocate for the modernization of the Swiss part-time work model, it remains to be seen how these changes will impact the lives of part-time workers in the country.
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