Swiss Study: AI Isn't Collapsing the Job Market, It's Restructuring It From Within

The Swiss Employees' Association has published a study showing that artificial intelligence is not causing the labor market collapse some economists feared just a year ago. Instead of a wave of mass layoffs, something else is happening: rising pay for people who can work with AI tools, and a shrinking number of openings for entry-level workers.

The article covering the study's findings appeared on July 22 on the Swiss outlet SWI swissinfo.ch, written by Matthew Allen. The piece combines data from the Swiss Employees' Association with a separate analysis by the recruitment portal Jobs.ch, which examined 7.3 million job listings from 2019-2025 collected from the Jobs.ch, Jobup.ch and JobScout24.ch platforms.

What the Numbers Show

The researchers' key conclusion is that AI is not eliminating jobs directly and en masse, but changing their structure. Companies are increasingly listing explicit requirements for experience with AI tools, but such postings still remain a small share of the overall economy, 1.8 percent of all vacancies.

Among the specific companies cited as looking for employees with AI skills are the bank Sygnum, footwear maker On, apparel brand The North Face, and pharmaceutical giant Roche, which in one listing asked candidates for deep familiarity with generative artificial intelligence.

Juniors Lose the Most

The clearest AI effect shows up at the lowest rung of the career ladder. The Jobs.ch study found that entry-level listings dropped most sharply in administration, HR, banking, finance, marketing, procurement, sales, IT and telecommunications. In those same fields, demand for senior positions is rising, suggesting companies are shifting simple tasks toward automation and hiring people mainly where experience is required.

Not every industry feels the pressure equally. Demand for young workers remains relatively strong in healthcare, construction and skilled trades, where staff shortages persist and tasks are harder to automate.

Far from being a job killer, AI may actually be a job expander when used to unlock growth and enter new markets - PricewaterhouseCoopers

Counterexamples Abound

The article also cites cases that don't fit the optimistic picture. Travel platform Lastminute.com laid off 25 percent of its staff in June, attributing the decision to a shift toward an AI-focused strategy. Ford, on the other hand, had to rehire more than 300 quality inspectors after the AI cameras that replaced them proved insufficiently accurate.

Swiss Post is preparing a fleet of autonomous Amigo buses for next year, though for now each vehicle must carry a safety operator on board. The Syndicom trade union warns that despite the announcements, the technology still is not mature enough to carry passengers unattended, and fears that in the longer run Swiss Post will use AI development to accelerate staff cuts.

The biggest challenge for the Swiss labour market is not the technology itself - Swiss Employees' Association

Context for Poland

The findings from Switzerland, a country with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe and a large number of employers in the finance and pharmaceutical sectors, don't translate directly to the Polish labor market. They do, however, point to a pattern Polish companies will likely see play out at home: rising AI skill requirements in hiring, a shrinking number of entry-level office positions, and steady demand for manual workers and experienced specialists.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, quoted in a February article, said at the India AI Impact Summit that some layoffs blamed on AI actually stem from business decisions that would have happened anyway, with AI serving as a convenient excuse. That observation fits the Swiss data: the labor market is changing, but not necessarily in the way the most alarmist forecasts from a year or two ago suggested.