The Structural Shifts in Switzerland’s Economy and Society, 2000–2020

Abstract

This chapter discusses the changes in Switzerland’s economy and society between 2000 and 2020, two decades marked by growth: Switzerland’s economy expanded almost without interruption, employment increased to an extent not seen since the 1960s, and the population rose by over a fifth. However, productivity only increased slowly and wages grew much less than in earlier boom periods. Over the same period, Switzerland’s social structure changed fundamentally. Educational attainment rose sharply as the numbers both of graduates of Swiss universities and of highly qualified immigrants increased. Tertiary education is thus becoming the new norm in Switzerland, replacing apprenticeships as the dominant level of education. Under the influence of strong immigration, Switzerland’s population has also become more diverse. Increasingly highly skilled immigration from a growing number of countries puts an end to a skewed social structure where foreigners from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the former Yugoslavia were traditionally relegated to the social hierarchy’s bottom-end. These trends have also altered Switzerland’s class structure. Strong job growth in health, education, and business services has mainly benefited professionals, managers, and technicians. Therefore, the ranks of the salaried middle class expanded, whereas the traditional working class as well as the lower middle class of clerical workers lost ground. The losers of structural change in recent decades thus have been not the middle class but the working class.