August 1: Very few people attend official National Day celebrations

Please note: This is a translation.

  • Most Swiss employees stay at home on August 1 and celebrate with friends and family
  • Many are just not particularly interested in August 1

 

Zurich, 28 July 2010 – Is it because Swiss National Day falls on a Sunday this year?
Many people don't see Switzerland's birthday as a reason to go to an official event.
The latest online survey conducted by well-known Swiss career portal Monster.ch shows that just under 15 percent of Swiss people consider themselves patriotic and are planning to go to an August 1 celebration with like-minded people, as they do every year. More than four in ten participants will stay at home and spend the day with friends and relatives. But about the same number of employees admits that they are not particularly interested in August 1st. They also complain about the fact that this year the national holiday falls on a weekend.

Swiss National Day

The results of the survey at a glance:

Switzerland will celebrate Swiss National Day for the 719th time on August 1st. Will you be joining in the celebrations?

We will attend a traditional event to mark this national holiday, as we do every year.


15%

We’ll be celebrating August 1st at home with friends and family.

43%

I’m not really interested. We don’t even get a day off this year, as August 1st is a Sunday.


42%


"Of course national holidays are always happy occasions because they mean an official day off.– Although, in Switzerland this has only been the case since the launch of the popular initiative “for an official public holiday” in 1993. But in a federal, multicultural and multilingual country like Switzerland, National Days don’t seem to have the same importance as they do in countries that see themselves not as a nation of consensus but rather as a country with a strong national culture, language, and history. Switzerland has grown organically over many centuries, and regional and cantonal identities are at least as strong here as any national identity.”

One hundred and twenty people from all over Switzerland took part in the survey from the 12th of July until the 26th of July 2010. Career portal Monster conducts regular surveys on its local and global websites covering all kinds of subjects relating to work and careers. These surveys are not representative, but reflect the opinions of Monster users.

 

Printable images relating to this press release are available at:

http://www.webershandwick.de/monster/thumb.html

 
About Monster Switzerland

Monster Switzerland (www.monster.ch) is a leading online career portal which offers a comprehensive range of services and information on all aspects of jobs and careers. The company brings together employers and qualified workers at all career levels and offers job hunters customized support for individual career planning. The headquarters of Monster Worldwide Switzerland AG are located in Zurich. Monster Worldwide Switzerland AG is a subsidiary of Monster Worldwide Inc., based in New York, which has been active in online recruitment since 1994 and is one of the world’s leading online job portals. The company helps people realize their life goals. Monster Worldwide operates in markets in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MWW) and in the S&P 500 index.

 

Download the press release: http://presse.monster.ch

 

Further information

Monster Worldwide Switzerland AG

Michel Ganouchi

Head of Marketing

Bändliweg 20, 8048 Zurich

Tel.: 043 499 44 08, Fax: 043 499 44 44

E-mail: michel.ganouchi@monster.ch