Deep pool of skilled talent

Top talent finds a home in Greater Zurich

Are you looking for a location with a broad and diverse availability of highly-qualified employees? According to both the INSEAD Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2023 and the IMD World Talent Ranking 2023, Switzerland, particularly the Greater Zurich Area, is the world's most appealing location for attracting, retaining, and developing talent.

This is thanks to key factors like the excellent Swiss education system, leading universities producing and attracting top talent, the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons with the European Union, the country’s cosmopolitan attitude, attractive conditions for employees and employers, social mobility, and the high quality of life.

Gain valuable insights into navigating the Swiss and European DeepTech talent market and how to optimize your recruitment strategies according to seasoned HR professionals.

Whitepaper "DeepTech recruiting in Switzerland"

A virtual roundtable discussion with experts from Rockstar Recruiting, DFINITY, the Canton of Zurich, and Google Cloud

Why Greater Zurich

The Greater Zurich Area continues to score highly on the Global Talent Competitiveness Index, thanks to its excellent career opportunities for skilled talent, excellent infrastructure and high quality of life. Additionally, the wage level for highly qualified talents is at a uniform level throughout Europe - considering the country’s low individual taxation, Switzerland is particularly attractive for top-earning specialists.

From an employer's point of view, Greater Zurich offers ideal conditions for recruiting the best talents. Innovative, global companies such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM, as well as a growing start-up community, help Greater Zurich to thrive as a business location. The city of Zurich has become Google's largest and most important location for development outside the USA, with more than 5,000 employees from 85 nations working for Google in Zurich.

Outstanding education system

Switzerland has a very successful and well-established dual education system. School graduates have the opportunity to complete a 3-4 years apprenticeship at a company while attending vocational school, and two-thirds of young people choose this career path. Apprentices acquire practical professional skills and take an active role in the company’s processes.

At the university level, every year, around 14,500 Bachelor's degrees, 14,000 Master's degrees, and 4,000 doctorates are awarded. Additionally, there are around 16,000 bachelor's and master's graduates from universities of applied sciences. With the ETH, one of the world's leading technical universities, the University of Zurich, and various universities of applied sciences, the Greater Zurich Area has a particularly high percentage of tertiary educational institutions and graduates.

Linguistic and cultural diversity

In addition to its thriving dual education system, linguistic and cultural diversity is a key feature of Switzerland’s business community. The official languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh, and local employees are known for their multilingualism, intercultural competence, and adaptability. English as a lingua franca is very common in Switzerland and the second most spoken language in Zurich.

Rankings, facts and figures

#1 worldwide in talent attraction and retention

Source: IMD

#1 worldwide in innovation

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization

#3 on World Competitiveness Ranking

Source: IMD

ETH Zurich ranks #11 in the World University Ranking

Source: THE Times Higher Education

4 official national languages

Source: EDA

In addition to the highly qualified workforce and specialists with international experience in Zurich, we also appreciate the fact that many internationally active companies have their headquarters here.

Reinhard Waldinger - Managing Director, Rackspace International GmbH