ABSTRACT
While most OECD economies have encountered high jobless rates since the oil shock of the 1970s, Switzerland has often been considered a special case due to its successful maintenance of full employment. Between 1940 and 1990 the average yearly unemployment rate exceeded the 1 per cent mark only once, a 1.1 per cent rate resulting from the recession of 198284 (see Figure 9.1). More recently, however, Switzerland’s special status has come into question. The recession of the early 1990s brought with it a five-fold increase in the unemployment rate, from less than 1 per cent to an unfamiliar high of 5.2 per cent (January 1994). With unemployment levels not seen since the 1930s, Swiss authorities have faced a necessary reevaluation of existing labour market policy.
