Swiss Medtech Grows, But Domestic Job Creation Stalls
The industry reports rising revenues and exports but creates few new domestic jobs. A key question about Switzerland's appeal as a business location underpins these figures.
The Swiss Medtech industry sells more, exports billions, and continues to invest heavily in research. However, its domestic employment engine has almost stalled. This is precisely the more significant message of the new industry study: growth is not disappearing, but its connection to additional Swiss jobs is weakening.
According to Swiss Medtech, the industry's revenue increased by an average of 5.5 percent per year over the past two years. Approximately 1400 companies recently employed about 72,000 people. Exports amounted to 12 billion Swiss Francs, with a trade surplus of 5.5 billion. Simultaneously, only about 200 net additional jobs were created. Swiss Medtech contrasts this with a long-term average of approximately 1500 new jobs per year.
An Abrupt Break with Recent Growth
A comparison with the previous survey shows the extent to which the dynamic has changed. For the years 2021 to 2023, the industry still reported approximately 4200 additional jobs. At that time, employment, according to the association study compiled by the federal government, stood at 71,700 people. Today's figures are not precisely comparable down to individual positions: sample, survey timing, and definitions may differ. However, the order of magnitude still allows a clear conclusion: job creation has slowed significantly.
This is not a contraction. Nor does it automatically mean that companies are relocating their production en masse. Revenue and employment can diverge for several reasons: higher prices, productivity gains, a different composition of products sold, or growth at foreign locations. The study identifies the trend but cannot causally separate its causes.
Investment Figures Are the More Serious Warning Sign
The question of location gains more weight from the future plans of the surveyed companies. 43 percent state they are currently planning no investments. More than half rate Switzerland's attractiveness as worse than five years ago. Simultaneously, according to the study, investments in production as well as research and development decreased. This is particularly relevant for medical technology: research, approval, high-precision manufacturing, and clinical collaboration form a network. If part of this is permanently moved abroad, it cannot be easily brought back.
However, Swiss Medtech is an advocate for the industry. Its survey, created in collaboration with the consulting firm Helbling, provides valuable company data, but also links it to political demands. Statements regarding regulation, costs, or market access must therefore be read as the association's position, not as independent proof of a single cause.
The Overall Economy Offers No Easy Scapegoat
A look at official employment data makes the development remarkable. In the overall Swiss economy, employment in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Federal Statistical Office, was 2.0 percent higher than a year prior; in the industrial sector, the increase was 1.2 percent. These are not direct Medtech values, as official economic sectors do not perfectly align with the association's definition. However, they show that Medtech's weak job development cannot simply be explained by a nationwide employment slump.
This presents an uncomfortable task for policymakers. The location should neither be glorified based on export figures nor dismissed due to an association survey. Three measurable questions will be crucial going forward: Where are new research and production capacities emerging? How many qualified positions remain in Switzerland? And what proportion of value creation is actually generated here?
Growth Alone Is Not Enough
The industry remains attractive for employees and university graduates. But if revenue growth increasingly occurs without additional jobs, laboratories, or production lines in Switzerland, the economy loses more than just payrolls. Learning curves, approval expertise, and the proximity between research and factory diminish.
The new figures are therefore neither proof of crisis nor an all-clear. They mark a checkpoint: In two years, it will not only matter whether the Medtech industry has sold more again. It will be crucial whether a larger part of this success has been translated back into Swiss investments and jobs.
