Labour market context for Full-time Class of 2020 employment data

We follow Career Services & Employer Alliance (CSEA) reporting guidelines when compiling employment data, which requires us to report performance at 3 months post-graduation. The labour market dynamics of Switzerland and Germany largely influence our employment outcomes. Our Full-time Class of 2020 graduated into labour market situations in these two countries characterized by record highs of unemployment, record lows of job vacancies and record highs of companies accepting federal “Kurzarbeit” assistance (short-term work) which restricted hiring and firing activities. We intend to revisit our Class of 2020 employment data at 6 months post-graduation, and expect our performance to have improved on this time frame.

Over the past 3 years (2017, 2018 and 2019), 71% of our Full-time graduates received job offers in Switzerland and 13% in Germany based on data collected at 3 months post-graduation. Our MBA programme employment data is predominantly influenced by the labour market situations in Switzerland and Germany, because those are the markets in which our graduates predominantly seek jobs.

• The number of job seekers topped 260,000 at the end of December 2020, which represents a 34.9% increase on 2019 – the highest level since February 1997. (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, 2021)
   
• The number of workers receiving short-time work compensation in 2020 rose from 5,000 in February to 1 million in March, before peaking at a record high of 1.3 million in April. (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, 2021)
   
• From February 2020 to December 2020, the monthly number of new job postings in Switzerland fell from 2019 rates. In April 2020, the month with the most extreme difference, the number of newly advertised positions had decreased 45% below the previous year’s figure. In the months of September, October and the first half of November (the 3 months immediately post-graduation), the number of newly advertised positions was on average 18% below the previous year's figure. (IZA Institute of Labour Economics, 2020)

• At its peak in April 2020, the number of short-​time workers in Germany reached almost 6 million or more than 20% of all workers subject to social insurance. (IZA Institute of Labour Economics, 2021)
   
• In every month from April to December 2020, job vacancies were down 21.3% to 28.5% from the measured monthly level in 2019. (IZA Institute of Labour Economics, 2021)
   
• People registered as unemployed in Germany reached its peak of 2,940,000 in June 2020, an increase of 29% from the pre-pandemic level in January 2020; at the same time, job vacancies in Germany reached a low of 561,000 in July 2020, a decrease of 21% from the pre-pandemic level in January 2020 (OECD, 2021)

Data shows that employment opportunities were increasingly scarce while the number of job seekers in the labour market grew during the onset of the pandemic. Unemployment rates and competition for jobs would have been higher, if had it not been for Switzerland and Germany both implementing federal “Kurzarbeit” or “short-time work” schemes to help employers retain workers and avoid layoffs. The scheme involved unutilised workers receiving a partial salary, with a remaining portion being paid by the government up to a certain amount. Firms receiving Kurzarbeit support were restricted in their hiring and firing while receiving this government benefit. People who had received job offers prior to the adoption of Kurzarbeit, but had not yet started in their role, were asked by employers to push back their start dates. Thus, the entire recruitment pipeline was shifted backwards by over 3 months. Once Kurzarbeit restrictions were lifted, the first new hires were often people who had already been in process pre-pandemic. Firms that regularly recruit from us were part of the Kurzarbeit scheme. This directly impacted the available job opportunities for our graduates during springtime, a critical job search period leading up to our August graduation.

Reporting employment at 3 months post-graduation is an industry standard based on the Career Service & Employer Alliance (CSEA) guidelines. When the 3 months post-graduation milestone was hit, multiple Class of 2020 graduates were still mid-process interviewing with companies. Finding a post-MBA role in Switzerland or Germany is highly competitive in any year, let alone in 2020. This is why, going forward, we intend to track and publish the outcomes of our graduates beyond the 3 month mark. We remain optimistic and supportive that our Class of 2020 graduates will find their way into great post-MBA jobs and embark on pathways to career satisfaction in the long run. Indeed, in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2021, the University of St.Gallen MBA is ranked #1 worldwide in the category of ‘International Mobility.’ This metric is based on surveys with alumni 3 years after graduation. It measures graduates who have successfully changed country pre-to-post graduation and found work in locations where they do not hold citizenship. In short, according to Financial Times calculations, we are the best programme in the world for helping MBA graduates achieve international mobility in their first three years after graduation.