Swiss Unemployment Rate at 3.2% for September

The Swiss unemployment rate came in unchanged today at 3.2% for the month of September, and in terms of seasonal adjustment the rate was also unchanged at 3.3% in comparison to the market’s forecast of climb to 3.4%, there was however a marginal growth in the unadjusted total number of unemployed in the same month.

In terms of annual change, there was a slight drop in the unemployment rate from 3.4% as overall fluctuations stayed mostly low. There was also a drop in youth employment on the month, mixed with a rise in the number of active job seekers as employees went back to their workforce. There was an increase in the number of vacancies compared with the previous month and there was also a decline in the amount of short-term working.

Although Swiss GDP growth has been solid during 2016, there has been little overall change in the unemployment rate. With a strong currency, there is further underlying pressure on companies to cut costs and reduced payrolls to maintain their competitive position. The latest data will tend to reduce these fears slightly, although data will continue to be monitored closely by the National Bank with the bank still calling for a weaker currency over the medium term. The overall market impact was limited as EUR/CHF held just below 1.0950 with USD/CHF trading just below 0.9800.

In other news, the Greek consumer prices grew by 1.8% in the month of September with the annual inflation rate marginally lower at -1.0% from -0.9% in August as prices also rose 1.8% on a rounded basis for September 2015. Clothing and footwear prices rose very strongly in the month by over 40% on seasonal grounds and there was a small 2.2% annual increase in prices. Food prices fell 1.0% on the month with a 1.6% annual decline, while housing costs fell 4.1% over the year. Although hotel and restaurant prices increased 1.1% over the year, there were still annual declines for household equipment, recreation, education and miscellaneous services.

The overall outlook for the data continues to imply a very gradual easing in underlying deflationary pressures.