AI is transforming the Swiss job market—and causing anxiety among the younger generation

The Swiss labor market is undergoing a period of rapid change. Artificial intelligence is transforming job descriptions, requirements, and the demand for certain professional roles—though not at the same pace everywhere and not to the same extent across all industries. The jobs.ch AI Report 2026, published by Jobcloud on June 24, 2026, provides a data-driven assessment of the current situation based on 7.3 million job postings from the platforms jobs.ch, jobup.ch, and JobScout24.ch, as well as surveys of over 3,600 employees and approximately 850 companies in Switzerland.

Starting a Career Under Pressure

The numbers speak for themselves: The share of all job postings for entry-level professionals in 2025 has declined by 32 percent compared to the average for the years 2019–2022. Nearly half of all job postings analyzed (44 %) are for so-called AI-exposed roles—these include, in particular, jobs in administration and HR, banking, finance, marketing, procurement, and sales, as well as IT and telecommunications roles. It is precisely in these areas that the share of entry-level positions has fallen particularly sharply.

The persistent gap between junior and senior positions points to a structural shift: Companies are increasingly replacing entry-level staff with experienced professionals. In a workplace where AI tools can take over traditional entry-level tasks such as data entry, simple analyses, or drafting initial documents, companies simply need fewer employees at the bottom of the career ladder. «Those entering the workforce today face a different job market than they did just a few years ago. AI is increasingly taking over tasks that have long been considered classic entry-level work. The key question, therefore, is not whether jobs will disappear, but how people will gain professional experience in the future,» says Marco Bertoli, CEO of Jobcloud.

This leads to a paradox: the very fields for which many young people are being prepared through vocational training and college—such as business, IT, marketing, or finance—are currently also the fields where traditional entry-level positions are under the most pressure.

Two Realities: A Shortage of Skilled Workers and Declining Demand

The so-called Scarcity Index, which measures the shortage of skilled workers, highlights the divide in the Swiss labor market particularly clearly. Between 2023 and 2025, the Scarcity Index for occupations less exposed to AI rose by 19 percent—meaning these positions are becoming increasingly difficult to fill. At the same time, the index for roles exposed to AI fell by 69 percent. The divergence of approximately 90 percentage points between the two groups points to a structural shift.

On the one hand, there are nurses, tradespeople, and frontline staff: difficult to automate, and increasingly scarce. It is now eight times harder to recruit a nurse than it was in 2023, and Switzerland forecasts a shortage of over 65,000 healthcare professionals by 2030. On the other hand, marketing specialists, analysts, and administrative staff are flooding into a market where demand has noticeably declined. The construction industry, in particular, is experiencing strong growth: Demand for skilled trades and technical skills has risen by 522 percent, driven by long-term infrastructure and transformation projects such as the Net-Zero 2050 climate strategy, energy-efficient building renovations, and the expansion of renewable energy.

AI Is Breaking Free from the IT Industry

Another key finding of the report: AI skills are increasingly spreading beyond traditional tech professions. Since the widespread adoption of large language models, the share of AI-related job postings in IT and telecommunications has fallen by 30 percent. At the same time, the share of such job postings is growing sharply in other industries: by 186 percent in construction, architecture, and engineering; by 133 percent in finance, trust services, and real estate; and also in the restaurant industry, mechanical and plant engineering, and public administration. AI is thus evolving from a purely technological competency into a cross-industry application competency—with specific areas of application such as Building Information Modeling, automated approval processes, and construction site monitoring.

Changing Wage Dynamics: Specialists Are in Demand, While Mid-Level Employees Face Pressure

The impact of AI is also becoming increasingly evident in wage structures. The pressure on the mid- to high-wage brackets is particularly noticeable: In sales, customer service, and administration, their share has fallen by 53 percent since 2023, and in mechanical and plant engineering, by 46 percent. At the same time, lower-wage segments are gaining ground, and highly specialized professionals—particularly in medicine, technology, and infrastructure—remain in high demand. In the healthcare sector, for example, the share of medical job postings in the very high-wage segment (over 135,000 Swiss francs) rose from 8 percent in 2023 to 32 percent—an increase of 24 percentage points. The construction sector is also showing an unusual trend: the volume of job postings rose by 41 percent, while the very high-wage segment grew by 71 percent.

AI FOBO: The Fear of the Younger Generation

In addition to the job market analysis, the report examined how employees perceive the impact of AI. The overall picture is surprisingly positive: 78 percent of respondents feel generally well-prepared to deal with artificial intelligence, 42 percent actively use AI as a tool in their daily work, and 57 percent are pursuing further education on their own—often informally through online content or by experimenting with new tools.

However, the picture is quite different among younger age groups. Forty-one percent of those under 25 say they are very or extremely concerned about losing their professional relevance due to AI. Among 25- to 34-year-olds, the figure is 37 percent. Internationally, this phenomenon is increasingly being discussed as «AI FOBO»—«Fear of Becoming Obsolete»—the worry of falling behind technologically or losing relevance in the job market. «If four out of ten young workers fear losing their professional relevance, this is not primarily a technology issue. It is a matter of training opportunities, continuing education, and career prospects,» Bertoli emphasizes.

At the same time, the report reveals a striking contradiction: While many employees generally feel they are AI-ready, 34 percent of the companies surveyed report having difficulty recruiting suitable AI specialists. This suggests that self-perception and actual market demands are currently diverging.

Conclusion: Guidance as a Social Responsibility

Data from the jobs.ch AI Report shows that the Swiss labor market is undergoing profound changes, though not at the same rate everywhere. AI does not simply replace jobs—it changes job descriptions, skill requirements, and career paths. Technical, manual, and interpersonal skills are gaining importance, while traditional office and knowledge-based professions—especially at the entry level—are coming under pressure. AI skills are spreading across an increasing number of industries, and while Zurich remains the most important hub for AI jobs (accounting for 32% of all national AI job postings), other regions such as Geneva, Basel, and Vaud are growing faster. «The key question is not whether work is changing, but how well we prepare people for this change,» Bertoli concludes. Companies, educational institutions, and policymakers share the responsibility for creating opportunities and facilitating access to new skills.

Source: www.jobs.ch