FULL-EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN SWITZERLAND - FROM EXCEPTIONALISM TO NORMALITY

Following a political-institutionalist view and premising the analysis on a longitudinal research design, this article focuses attention on the major institutional determinants of Switzerland's transition from full employment to unemployment in the economic recession of the early 1990s. That transition is largely attributable to a home-made change in labour-market institutions. Among these, the substitution of a social-liberal mode of labour market guidance for a national-liberal mode deserves to receive foremost mention. The major causes of that change comprise side effects of the institutionalization of a comprehensive national unemployment insurance scheme and the impact of the declining scope for discretionary action on the part of Swiss foreign labour policy. The outcome of Switzerland's changing labour-market institutions has been a substantial reduction of pro-cyclical labour supply behaviour and a significant increase in the extent, to which recession-induced underemployment is visible, and, hence, rising rates of unemployment in the most recent recession.