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THE WEEK IN SWITZERLAND

Five big news stories from Switzerland not to miss this week

New language requirements for naturalisation candidates, and higher rents for many tenants, are among the big news stories in Switzerland this week. You can catch up on everything in this weekly roundup.

Five big news stories from Switzerland not to miss this week
What does this have to do with this week's news? Read to find out. Photo: Pixabay

Zug’s right-wingers want naturalisation candidates to have better (German) language skills

The cantonal government has responded favourably to a motion from the populist Swiss People’s Party calling for a better language proficiency to obtain Swiss citizenship.

Until now, people who wish to obtain Swiss citizenship in the German-speaking canton, where about 30 percent of the population is foreign, must have a proficiency of a B1 (intermediate) oral level, and A2 (upper elementary) in written skills.

Under the new proposal, however, the candidate should have level B2 (upper intermediate) for oral German and level B1(intermediate) in writing.

READ ALSO: Swiss canton Zug pushes for tougher language rules for naturalisation 

Labour shortage fuels need for more employees

A shortage is still impacting Switzerland’s labour market — more so in some regions than in others and in certain specific sectors.

Qualified employees are urgently needed in several sectors, mainly healthcare, IT, and engineering.

This is a finding of a new survey carried out by Adecco recruitment agency together with the Swiss Labour Market Monitor from the University of Zurich.

Most job openings are currently in the Northwest, where 2.8 percent of jobs are vacant, followed by Zurich and central Switzerland (2.6 percent).

READ ALSO: Switzerland sees jump in number of job openings 

Switzerland maintains its work quotas for third-country nationals

Despite a push from Switzerland’s Justice Minister to issue fewer permits to workers from outside the European Union, the government will retain the same number of quotas for 2024.

This means that up to 8,500 skilled workers can again be recruited from third countries: 4,500 will get a B residence permit, and 4,000 a short-term  L permit. 

UK citizens are eligible for separate quotas as part of a transitional post-Brexit arrangement: 2,100 B and 1,400 L permits are set aside just for them.

READ ALSO: Switzerland resists pressure to cut work permits for non-EU workers

Zurich ranked world’s most expensive city

A new ranking by The Economist magazine places Zurich in the top spot.

The reason for the high cost of living in the city, “partly reflects the strength of the Swiss franc, as well as high prices for groceries, household goods and recreation,” according to the report.

Not surprisingly, Switzerland’s second-largest city, Geneva, is also world’s second most-expensive in The Economist ranking.

READ ALSO: Why Zurich is the world’s most expensive city to live in 

New rent hikes to hit a number of Swiss tenants

Tenants in Switzerland just can’t catch a break: their rents will go up from December for the second time this year.

The most recent increase was announced in June.

On Friday, the Federal Housing Office (BWO) announced that it is raising, with immediate effect, the reference mortgage rate to 1.75 percent, from 1.50 percent.
 
“As a result, and in accordance with lease law, landlords can in principle increase the rent by around 3 percent

READ ALSO: Switzerland sees new rent hike but will yours go up? 

Also in the news this week:

Swiss words of 2023

Even if you are still trying to wrap your head around one of Switzerland’s national languages (much less all four), you need to know the words selected as best describing the country’s “social discourse” this year:

READ ALSO: The four ‘Swiss’ words you really need to know in 2023

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For members

THE WEEK IN SWITZERLAND

Six big news stories from Switzerland you need to know about this week

Russia's cyberattacks on Swiss government websites and deadly explosion near Zurich are among the Swiss news The Local reported this week. You can catch up on everything in this weekly roundup.

Six big news stories from Switzerland you need to know about this week

Government will have to implement measures to cut the cost of health insurance

After Swiss voters rejected two initiatives to curb the price of obligatory health insurance premiums on June 9th, it is now up to the Federal Council and the cantons to step in with their own counter-proposals.

These measures provide for various ways to curb the cost of premiums, including earmarking a portion of public budgets for premium reductions for low-income families, as well as setting up a commission for monitoring costs and quality of health insurance. 

Switzerland’s international schools are most expensive in Europe

Ninety-four schools in 10 Swiss cities are geared specifically to students whose parents are foreign nationals and want their children to get an international education that is recognised abroad more widely than a solely Swiss schooling is — especially outside the EU.

But according to a  new survey carried out by International Schools Database, which researches and compares schools in cities across the world, the cost of tuition and other services at these schools (such as extra-curricular activities, for instance), is higher than in international institutions across Europe.
 
READ ALSO: Why are international schools in Switzerland the most expensive in Europe? 

Russia launches cyberattacks on Swiss government websites

Just as Switzerland is preparing to launch a high-level summit on peace in Ukraine, its websites had been hit by a wave of cyberattacks.

Russia is suspected to be at the origin of these actions.

The government said, however, that these attacks were expected and are presumed to be in connection with the summit. They resulted in minor outages but the operation of the affected units was not significantly affected.

READ ALSO: Swiss government hit by cyberattack ahead of Ukraine peace summit 

Deadly explosion in an underground garage
 
Two people died, and 11 were injured in a town near Zurich when powerful fireworks exploded in the underground car park of an apartment building. 

The incident happened in Nussbaumen, in canton Aargau.

But while the cause of the blast is known, investigators are looking into how exactly the incident occurred.
 
READ ALSO: Two killed after explosions in Swiss underground garage 

Buying property could become less expensive

Thanks to falling mortgage interest rates — due mostly to two key rate cuts still expected from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) — mortgages are now significantly lower than they were at this time in 2023.

Many are now below 2 percent and they are expected to drop further by the beginning of 2025.

This is already the case in the cantons of Bern, Solothurn, Aargau, Schaffhausen, and Thurgau, as well as in certain areas of Vaud, Fribourg, and Valais, where buying a home is also already cheaper than renting.

READ ALSO: Property prices in Switzerland set to become (slightly) more affordable 

And also:
 
Have you caught football fever yet?

It is not dangerous to our health but its cure is straight-forward: you must watch the EURO 2024 games.
 
Whether indoors or outside, there are many opportunities to cheer on the Swiss ‘Nati’ which, depending on the linguistic region where you live could be ‘Hopp Schwiiz,’ ‘Hop Suisse,’ or ‘Hop Svizzera.’

READ ALSO: Where you can watch Euro 2024 in Switzerland 
 
 

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