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WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

Where are Switzerland’s biggest international companies?

You may think that the biggest Swiss urban centres are also home to the country’s largest companies. But that is not necessarily so.

Where are Switzerland’s biggest international companies?
Nestlé headquarters in Vevey, Vaud. Photo: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP

Perhaps you believe that Switzerland’s main activity is centred on banks, watches, cheese, chocolate, and not much else.

While this view fits in well with many stereotypes about the country, it does not depict the whole picture.

In fact, Switzerland is home to a large number of international companies: in all, 850 have based their global or regional head offices here.

READ MORE: Why Switzerland continues to attract foreign companies despite the coronavirus pandemic

The reason, according to Switzerland Global Enterprise, the official promotion organisation for export and investment, is that “Switzerland offers an exceptional number of advantages: a strategic location in the heart of Europe, a high standard of living and secure and reliable infrastructure, as well as an attractive taxation system”.

But though logic may have it that most of these enterprises are headquartered in large cities like Zurich, Geneva, and Basel, this is only partially true.

Let’s see where the largest companies are located in Switzerland:

Vaud

Switzerland’s largest company, Nestlé — which manufactures a wide range of products, including baby food, bottled water, cereal, and chocolate — has a sprawling presence in a small (population about 20,000) town of Vevey.

Located on the shore of Lake Geneva in Vaud, the town is also known as the place where Charlie Chaplin spent the last 25 years of his life, and whose mansion is now a museum dedicated to his work.

Other big multinationals headquartered in Vaud are cigarette producer Philip Morris International, which employs 3,000 people in Lausanne, as well as Medtronic, a global producer of medical devices, whose European headquarters (and 750 employees) are located in a village of Tolochenaz.

Basel

Two large Swiss healthcare companies — Roche and Novartis — are based in this city, which is unofficially known as the pharma capital of Switzerland.

Roche employs 13,6000 people in its core diagnostics and pharmaceutical divisions, while 8,000 people work on Novartis’ site, to which the company refers to as a “campus.”

READ MORE: Is Basel the best Swiss city for foreigners and Geneva the worst?

Zug

The tiny canton of Zug has a high concentration of multinational companies, the largest of which is the mining giant, Glencore.

Other well-known corporations in the canton are appliance manufacturer Siemens, as well as a healthcare firm Johnson & Johnson.

What large companies are located in the two largest cities, Zurich and Geneva?

Among corporations that call Zurich their “home” are the  Swedish-Swiss multinational automation company ABB, AXA insurance company, UBS and Credit Suisse banks, and the Swiss division of Google.

What about Geneva?

Aside from some private banks, as well as Rolex watches, Geneva is also headquarters to multinationals like grain trader Cargill International and Procter & Gamble consumer goods.

Do any of these companies hire foreign nationals?

Part of the workforce in each of the above companies consists of foreign nationals.

Your best bet to be hired by one of them — aside from qualifications needed for specific positions — is to be a EU / EFTA national, or have either a B or C work permit. Those criteria, however, apply to all jobs in Switzerland.

If you want to see what positions are available, and how much they pay, you can check out each company’s website or you can send the recruitment department your CV to put on file.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: How to write the perfect Swiss CV

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WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

Switzerland sees record high immigration from European countries

Switzerland has seen record immigration from European countries and a new report reveals a correlation with the country's low unemployment rate.

Switzerland sees record high immigration from European countries

Lots of data indicates that Switzerland needs foreign workers to fill job vacancies.

Now a report from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) confirms the importance that employees from the European Union and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) have had for Switzerland’s labour market and economy in general. 

That is why “demand for foreign labour was strong in Switzerland in 2023,” SECO said in its annual report published on Monday, which assessed the impact that the Free Movement of Persons agreement (FMPA) has had on the country’s employment.

In 2023, 68,000 people from EU and EFTA countries came to work in Switzerland, according to SECO, driven by “employment growth that has significantly exceeded the EU average.”

Why does Switzerland need EU / EFTA workers?

Simply put, they are needed for the country’s economy to function optimally.

As SECO pointed out, while the number of pensioners is growing (due mostly to Switzerland’s exceptionally high life expectancy), “Swiss working-age population has experienced only slow growth over the past 20 years.”

“The country’s economic growth is not possible without immigration,” said Simon Wey, chief economist at the Swiss Employers’ Union. “We need foreign labour if we want to maintain our level of prosperity.”  

READ ALSO: How EU immigrant workers have become ‘essential’ for Switzerland 

In what sectors is the need for these workers the highest?

“A large number of people from the EU coming to work in Switzerland are highly qualified and are employed in demanding activities in high-growth branches of the service sector, such as the branch of special, scientific and technical activities, that of information and communication or the health sector;” SECO’s report said.

But the Swiss economy also recruits EU nationals as low-skilled labour, particularly in the hotel and catering industry, as well as construction and industry.

Why are only people from the EU / EFTA states recruited?

The reason is that, unlike nationals of third countries, people from the EU / EFTA have an almost unlimited access to the Swiss employment market, thanks precisely to the FMPA. 

Also, those coming from the neighbour countries (as most of Switzerland’s foreign labour force does), have the required language skills to easily integrate into the workforce in language-appropriate Swiss regions.
 

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