Fall in turnover and stable employment in Swiss market sector activities in Q2 2025
Neuchâtel, 08.09.2025 — Switzerland saw a mixed performance across market sector activities in the 2nd quarter 2025. While turnover fell by 2.0% compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment in these same sectors rose by 0.1% (total employment +0.6%). These are provisional findings from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
In the secondary sector (industry and construction), turnover fell by 1.2% and employment by 0.4%. The tertiary sector (services) recorded a decrease in turnover of 2.5%, while employment grew by 0.4%.
Secondary sector
Different trends were observed across the secondary sector in the 2nd quarter 2025. While in the industrial sector there was a decrease in turnover of 1.4% and a fall in employment of 1.1%, there was an increase in both turnover (+0.3%) and employment (+0.9%) in construction.
Tertiary sector
Trends varied among different tertiary sector market activities in the 2nd quarter 2025. While service sector activity turnover decreased by 2.5% over the same quarter of the previous year, employment figures rose slightly by 0.4%. In the tertiary sector as a whole, however, there was a 0.9% increase in employment. Retail turnover increased by 0.4% in the same period, while employment fell by 1.5%.
Focus topic: Slower growth in mechanical engineering than rest of secondary sector
Since 2015, mechanical engineering – traditionally a driver of Swiss industry – has lagged behind the rest of the secondary sector. Between the 2nd quarter 2015 and the 2nd quarter 2025, the mechanical engineering sector recorded turnover growth of 11.2 per cent. Meanwhile the secondary sector as a whole grew significantly faster, by 32.3 per cent over the same period.
This difference of over 20 percentage points illustrates the structural challenges in mechanical engineering, where the downward trend in employment is particularly pronounced. While the secondary sector has grown by 3.3 per cent in terms of employment over the past ten years, employment in mechanical engineering has suffered a decline of 2.9 per cent. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the picture is mixed: turnover in mechanical engineering increased by 0.7%, while turnover in the secondary sector fell by 1.2%. The downward trend in employment continued, however, with a fall of 3.5 per cent in mechanical engineering compared with a moderate decline of 0.4 per cent in the secondary sector as a whole. These figures reflect the ongoing changes with regard to this major Swiss export market activity and their impact on the labour market.