The wage gap between top bankers and those working for them is widening in Switzerland. The youngest and oldest employees are most affected by this development.
Digitization and the introduction of new technical tools will render many jobs obsolete in finance. UBS for example, Switzerland’s largest bank, may shed as many as 30 percent of its jobs as a consequence of the change, CEO Sergio Ermotti said last year.
Digitization as such may not necessarily result in fewer jobs in total, but the demands on the staff are going to shift. Not all employees that currently make up the workforce of a bank may in future be in equal demand.
Tough on Older and Younger Workers
The people who are going to lose their jobs lack the specific knowledge required to fill the new positions, said Andreas Dietrich, the co-head of the Institute of Financial Services Zug (IFZ). A fair number of relatively cheap employees are going to be released and expensive specialists hired at the same time, he told «NZZ am Sonntag» (behind paywall).
The development will likely affect the older employees and those who join the workforce for the first time. Banks often don’t cut wages and prefer to release mainly older workers, Dietrich added. The young employees however will receive a lower starting salary than they would have ten years ago.
More Cuts in Back Office
Still, the young bankers can reasonably expect to make a career. But in the back office, further members of staff will be released as banks are in the middle of a transformation process.
