The Swiss total fell. Private-household registrations rose 9.5%

Paid domestic work in Switzerland is usually discussed in terms of what the state cannot see: undeclared employment behind private doors. The latest SECO records illuminate a different, narrow slice: the short-term starts that entered an official notification procedure.

SECO recorded 1,890 registrations for short-term starts with Swiss employers in private-household services in 2025, up from 1,726 a year earlier. That is an increase of 9.5% and the highest level in the published series since at least 2005. Across all branches, the equivalent total fell from 171,819 to 166,955, or −2.8%.

Could this be an early sign that more household work is becoming formalised? The data cannot settle that question, but they make it worth asking.

The registered channel moved against the trend

The two rates were 12.3 percentage points apart. Private-household services remained a small category, at about 1.13% of the 2025 total. Its direction was unusual.

SECO had already described the 2024 household figure as a new high in a series beginning in 2005. Because the comparable 2025 figure is higher, 1,890 is the highest published level since at least 2005.

Could this mean less undeclared household work?

Possibly, but the data do not establish it.

More registrations mean that more short-term starts were recorded in this official channel. This could be consistent with more households declaring short-term employment.

It could also reflect more underlying activity, a shift from another administrative route, or changes in recording or industry assignment following the move to EasyGov in March 2025. SECO’s table does not track whether previously undeclared employment became declared, and it contains no estimate of the undeclared market.

The finding is narrower but still newsworthy: one registered household-employment channel grew sharply while the equivalent national total fell. The figures cannot show whether previously undeclared work moved into this channel. They do give journalists and policymakers a clear question to pursue: why did this registered category rise while the national total fell?

Why this matters

A private home becomes a workplace when someone is paid to clean, provide childcare, help an older person or perform another household service. Yet this work remains unusually difficult to see in conventional labour-market statistics.

Greater use of registered channels would matter. Declared employment creates a route into social insurance, accident cover, payroll records and other worker protections. It also gives households a clearer way to meet their obligations as employers.

Helpore works directly with these processes. We published the analysis because making lawful household employment simpler and easier to understand is central to our work. The national calculations use published federal data and can be reproduced from the downloadable workbook.

A second window: G permits in domestic services

A separate SEM snapshot recorded 5,828 valid G permits in the administrative category “domestic services” on 31 July 2026. Of those permit records, 89.1% were recorded for women and 52.3% in Ticino.

The comparison with the same workbook's all-branch total makes Ticino stand out. Ticino accounted for 18.1% of all valid G permits in Switzerland, but 52.3% of those classified in domestic services. The domestic-services category was therefore concentrated in Ticino at 2.9 times the canton's share of the overall valid-permit stock.

Of Ticino's 3,050 domestic-services permits, 2,900, or 95.1%, were recorded for Italian nationals and 2,868, or 94.0%, for women. The overlap is especially striking: 2,727 permits recorded in Ticino for Italian women represented 46.8% of the entire Swiss domestic-services category.

These are the seven cantons with at least 200 permits in the domestic-services category. Ticino, Thurgau and Graubünden were the only three above the national concentration benchmark in this group. Geneva provides a useful contrast: it had 56.6% more valid G permits overall than Ticino, but Ticino had 3.4 times as many in domestic services.

Nationality composition explains much of Ticino's result. The canton held 79.0% of all Italy-nationality G permits in Switzerland. Applying the Swiss domestic-services rate for each nationality group to Ticino's nationality mix gives a benchmark of about 2,619 permits. The observed 3,050 was still 16.4% above that nationality-adjusted benchmark.

These figures describe a stock of valid permits and the canton of work recorded by SEM. They are separate from the annual SECO registration figure.

What Helpore sees on its own platform

Helpore’s de-identified platform data provide a closer, company-specific view. Among 185 Helper accounts with a recorded non-Swiss EU/EFTA nationality and eligibility route, 58 (31.4%) selected the short-stay route and supplied a Swiss entry date within the previous 90 days.

The information is self-reported and does not show whether an authority registration or placement was completed. It is platform context, not a national estimate.

How to read the figures

Three distinctions are enough to interpret the study correctly:

• Registrations are not unique workers or jobs. The published total counts administrative records in a specific short-term procedure.
• The permit figure is separate. The 2025 SECO result is an annual flow; the July 2026 SEM figure is a stock of valid permits on one date.
• The result shows direction, not cause. The data establish the counter-trend but cannot tell us whether it reflects formalisation, market growth, switching between routes or the EasyGov transition.

How we calculated the result

Helpore compared the same component, short-term starts with Swiss employers, in SECO’s 2024 and 2025 statistical appendices.

For private-household services:

(1,890 / 1,726 − 1) × 100 = 9.5017%, reported as +9.5%.

For all branches:

(166,955 / 171,819 − 1) × 100 = −2.8309%, reported as −2.8%.

The supporting permit analysis uses SEM table 5-20 for 31 July 2026. Full source cells, formulas, definitions and the detailed technical limitations are available in the workbook and methodology ledger.

Study files

• Full study (PDF)
• Evidence workbook with formulas (XLSX)
• Publication data (CSV)
• Detailed methodology and source ledger
• Press charts: counter-trend, permit gender split and permit geography

Frequently asked questions

What does the figure 1,890 count?

It counts SECO registrations for short-term starts with Swiss employers in the private-household-services row in 2025. It is not a count of 1,890 distinct workers, households or jobs.

Are the 5,828 G permits 5,828 active workers?

No. They are the valid G permits in SEM's administrative domestic-services category on 31 July 2026: a stock of permit records on one date, not a count of people at work.

Can the registrations and the G permits be added together?

No. The 2025 SECO result is an annual flow; the July 2026 SEM figure is a stock of valid permits on one date. Units, periods and administrative categories differ.

Does the study show why the registrations increased?

No. The analysis is descriptive. The data establish the counter-trend but cannot tell whether it reflects formalisation, market growth, switching between routes or the move to EasyGov in March 2025.

What does the Helpore platform snapshot measure?

Among 185 Helpore Helper accounts with a recorded non-Swiss EU/EFTA nationality and eligibility route, 58 selected the short-stay route and supplied a Swiss entry date in the prior 90 days.

Official sources

1. SECO, Statistical appendix to the FlaM Report 2025, tables 1-1 and 1-3, released 17 June 2026.
2. SECO, Statistical appendix to the FlaM Report 2024, table 1-3.
3. SEM, Foreign population statistics, July 2026, including table 5-20.
4. FSO, Profile: Cross-border Commuters Statistics, explaining the distinction between valid permits and estimated active cross-border workers.
5. SECO and EasyGov, report on the standard employment contract for domestic work and the EasyGov transition.

Questions or factual corrections can be sent to hello@helpore.com.

Author

Gilberto de la Fuente
Director at Helpore

Through Helpore, we want to contribute by bringing the best quality household help to Switzerland; that's why it's an objective of ours to facilitate the registration process for those who have just arrived in Switzerland from the EU.