Practices

                                                           LABOR & EMPLOYMENT 

Switzerland’s labor industry is dominated by its service sector, with 74% of the nations GDP coming from the service industry and only 1% coming from its agricultural industry. The European nation also has one of the most competitive economies in the world with more than 3% of its GDP on R&D (SECO) Switzerland also has a very low unemployment rate steadily hovering under 5%, in 2019 it was 4.87%(Plecher, 2020).

 

 

 

                                                                        IMPORTS/EXPORTS

Switzerland’s economic standing is very good. The country’s open economy provides for lowering prices when manufacturing goods. Switzerland is mostly known for its import and export of gold. Both percentiles for gold make up about 20%. Because of this, countries such as India, Germany, and the United States have garnered a major interest in trading with Switzerland. In addition to gold Switzerland’s major exports are pharmaceutical goods which makes up about 11.5% of the country total exports, and watches which represent the third most traded product at about 5%. Some of Switzerland’s main imports are metals, machinery, organic chemicals, textiles, and agricultural products. As of 2018 Switzerland’s biggest trading partner was Germany, accounting for imports with a value of 57,788 million, and exports with a value of $47,447 million (LawyersSwitzerland, 2020). All in all Switzerland’s import/export trade has maintained a healthy good standing and continues to improve without fail.

 

 

 

                                                                           RETAILING

Switzerland is one of many international retailers undergoing tremendous change, through e-commerce and digital marketing interjection. Due to COVID-19, Swiss retailers are losing revenue. Before, retailers had both income from online and brick and mortar purchases but now have to solely rely on online profits to stay afloat.

 “In 2019, sales in the Swiss retail sector were overall stagnant. Expecting 2020 to be similar: Geopolitical challenges and the strong Swiss franc are likely to hamper dynamic growth, but the continued positive development of online sales should fuel retailers performance” (Lloyd-Owen, 2020). Today, Switzerland currently has 5.08 million e-commerce users and rising, with reports showing an expected increase of 470,000 users by 2021 (Montasell, 2020). With this, one can see that retail companies no matter how large or small are willing to make changes in order to keep up with the ever changing market climate.