More than 80% of Geneva’s GDP is created through services. With neither a large territory nor natural resources, Geneva has built its wealth solely on the added value of its ideas and skills.
“Made in Switzerland” has always stood for quality and reliability. In the past, one tended to associate the phrase with excellent cheese, chocolates, fine watches and machine tools. Today, Switzerland’s reputation has expanded to sensors, nanotechnology instruments, medical technology devices, applied research in biotechnology, and R&D in information and communications technology (ICT).
Genevans are good at building on their assets, turning expertise in, say, making fine watches in the 19th century to the development of precision instruments in the 21st. Some of the credit for this versatile, skilled workforce must go to the Lake Geneva Region’s excellent public school system and to such universities as the University of Geneva, Geneva School of Engineering and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).
Switzerland looks good in any international comparison of competitiveness, thanks primarily to its high-value-added services, specialized industries and an extremely motivated workforce. In spite of its small size and population, Switzerland also stands among those countries with the greatest number of valid patents per resident, the highest per-capita spending on science, research and education, and the highest share of exports in GDP.
With the longest working hours in Europe, Switzerland has a very high labor productivity (1856 hours worked per year) compared to its international peers. With one of the world’s most open economies, Switzerland also enjoys remarkable social stability. Besides that, Swiss people have exceptional language skills and benefit from an extensive international experience, making them ideal for all jobs in the international arena.
Finally, companies deciding to locate their business operations in Geneva will also
benefit from the exceptional swiss regulatory environment. Indeed, Switzerland represents an ideal business environment with an extremely low level of work regulations and with a very low level of labor conflicts.
To learn more about Geneva's exceptional workforce and HR environment in comparison to other important business locations, please consult the appropriate section of "
International comparisons", the yearly publication presenting independant comparative data on all major business locations.
Some general facts about Geneva's workforce:
- Motivated: Geneva workforce gets best rankings according to IMD
- Hard-working: an average 1856 hours worked per year
- Multilingual: having a second, third or more languages is very common in Geneva
- Educated: 90% of Geneva’s young people have secondary school certificates
No-risk hiring
An unusual human resource available - for free - to companies in Geneva is the
Cantonal Employment Office.
With over 20,000 resumes on file, the Employment Office can help
identify available skilled people as well as offer financial support
for training. In some cases, it will even cover 40% of the first year
salary.
