Restriction of EU immigrants a concern for companies

According to the Union Bank of Switzerland, the result of last November's referendum to restrict the number of EU nationals immigrating here has led to increased levels of uncertainty in the Swiss economy.
 
In a survey conducted by the bank, it was shown that over half of the companies asked said that they feared they would have increasing difficulty in finding appropriately qualified staff once quota fixing had been determined. Daniel Kalt, the senior economist at UBS, said the bank itself was surprised by the results of the survey.
 
In all, 385 companies were asked about what effects they thought result of the referendum would have on them and over 40% of them said it would have a deleterious effect on staff recruitment. Indeed 10% of the companies said they were expecting very strong negative consequences. Only 3% said they were expecting positive or very positive effects.
 
In the wake of the result of the referendum almost one third of the companies asked said that they were considering postponing planned investments in Switzerland and 38% of them were expecting a fall in demand from the EU.
 
Kalt further explained that half of the growth in the economy in recent years was due to high levels of immigration.