WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

About Switzerland

Welcome to Switzerland in the heart of Europe, known for its tourism with beautiful lakes, mountains and its 4 different cultures and languages, German,  French, Italian and Romansh.

It is a very small country, in total 42.000 km2, to travel from North to South takes you 2.5 hours and from East to West 4 hours by train or car. Switzerland is divided in 3 parts. In the North the Jura mountain chain (hills and farmland)  run from Geneva to Basel. Then you have the middleland, which is the rather flat area (farmland, forest and lakes) with the major cities between the Jura and the Alps. The Alps (highest mountain Dufourspitz 4650 m attitude) is covering a large part of the country from the West to the East, where you can find over 250 different mountain resorts.

The main cities are Zürich (the financial capital), Bern (the federal capital), Geneva (host of the UN, the international capital) and Basel (the pharmaceutical capital). Switzerland was founded more than 700 years ago. Long years of peace have left their mark on the Swiss heritage, history and culture. The Swiss are a friendly and hospitable people, though rather somewhat reserved.

Four main languages are spoken: Swiss-German is spoken by 65% of the population, French, spoken by 18%, predominates in the south-west; Italian, spoken by about 12%, is the language of Ticino; and Romansh (a Rhaeto-Romanic dialect), spoken by about 1%, is the language of the Grisons in the south-east.

Called Helvetia in ancient times, in 1291 Switzerland was a league of cantons in the Holy Roman Empire. More cantons were added, and in 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia gave Switzerland its independence. Today, it is made up of 23 cantons or rather 26 federated states of which 20 are called cantons and six are called half-cantons. Switzerland has a highly successful economy based on international trade and banking.

The Swiss economy is both stable and prosperous and has an exceptionally motivated working climate. The four largest political parties form a balanced coalition government which actively promotes favourable conditions for entrepreneurs and their companies.

Switzerland's dynamic industrial sector (chemicals / pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, machines, micro-engineering, watches and clocks, food) provides close to 30% of all jobs. The tertiary sector however is the Swiss economy mainstay employing over 50% of the population. Switzerland is the 7^th biggest export country in the world.