The Swiss Statistics Office has just issued a press release about the new companies created in 2013. 12,440 enterprises were founded then. It is 549 more than in 2012, which represents a 4.6% increase. Switzerland had not produced that many new businesses since 2001.
The newly born enterprises created 13,829 full-time and 8,452 part-time jobs in 2013. The majority are active in the tertiary sector. Education, human health and social work activities as well as the restaurant and hotel business were the sub-sectors which hired the most. Zurich, Ticino and Vaud scored the highest grades when it comes to the number of companies created.
Switzerland has one of the most liberal economies in the world. It is characterized by a large proportion of small and medium enterprises (close to 600'000) which employ approximately two third of the Swiss labor force. Setting up a company in Switzerland is a fairly easy process compared to other countries. If all the requirements are met, having the necessary paperwork ready to start a business can take as little as 2 to 3 weeks.
Thanks to the dynamism and flexibility of its economy, among other factors, Switzerland managed to position itself as one of the preferred business locations in Europe. For more information about investing in Switzerland, please refer to the Handbook for Investors.
