Switzerland's legendary workforce is highly productive, multilingual,
and one of the most multinational in Europe. More than 20% of
the population comes from abroad, bringing invaluable know how
to the already large labor pool.
The Swiss work the most hours per week in Europe; Swiss labor
law is among the most liberal in Europe, and social costs are
among the lowest in Europe.
Switzerland took first place in a Financial Times analysis
of an OECD study on countries' abilities to exploit the expanding
"knowledge intensive industries" of the 21st century.
Switzerland came in 9th, 5th in Europe, in the 2003 Global
Information Technology-Economy Index (GITEI) ranking 48 nations
on their embracing the technological revolution as an important
part of their economic development.
According to the IDC/World Times Information Society Index
for 2004 Switzerland ranks 4th globally and 3rd in Europe
among 52 countries in a measure of the state of information
technology usage and adoption.
