Fact Check: Switzerland Does NOT Have Ten Times Fewer State Employees Than The Czech Republic

Fact Check

  • by: Lead Stories Staff
Fact Check: Switzerland Does NOT Have Ten Times Fewer State Employees Than The Czech Republic Wrong Numbers

Does Switzerland, a state with a population comparable to the Czech Republic, have ten times fewer state employees than the Czech Republic? No, that's not true: According to reports from Czech and Swiss think tanks, the number of public sector employees is similar in both countries, around one million, and the figures used to illustrate the claim circulating on social media do not match.

The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on October 23, 2024. It shows a table stating that Switzerland, with a population of 8,5 million, has 46,000 state employees, while in the Czech Republic, with a population of 10,6 million, the state employs 482,000 people. The text above the table also states, in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff: "I do not understand what so many freeloaders are doing here."

The text overlay in Czech reads, as translated by Lead Stories staff:

Where is the problem?


Snímek obrazovky 2025-01-01 085712.png
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jan 1 10:17:13 2025 UTC)

The comparison between the two countries, which also stated that one, the Czech Republic, is an EU member and the other is not, is misleading. The image appears to compare different sets of data for each country to allegedly show that the Czech Republic has an overgrown bureaucratic apparatus. Lead Stories could not find in publicly available sources the 46,000 figure used in the TikTok to show the total number of Swiss state employees but found a much higher number: 950,000.

The number shown in the above video for the alleged total of state employees in the Czech Republic is similar to what is reported in a 2022 study (archived here) by a Czech think tank, IDEA Cerge EI. The report states that almost one-fifth of the country's workforce (in full-time equivalent terms) is employed in the Czech public sector. Of these workers - close to one million - almost half, 464,000, were considered "state employees" since they were paid from the state budget in 2020. Only around 78,000 of those were classified as "civil servants," though, a relatively low percentage considering how much attention is given to their total number in public debates, the study underlined.

State employees are defined in the study as those whose employment is regulated and financed by the state budget, and around half of them are regional schools´ staff. Public sector employees fall under a wider category which includes public health institutions, universities, and other institutions. Civil servants are employed by ministries, regional financial offices, and social security administrations or labor offices. The 2024 updated version (archived here) of the study, lists 76,000 civil servants, representing 16 percent of state employees.

The updated study also contains a table (archived here) showing how the number of Czech civil servants changed over the last two decades, up to 2023. The yellow color is used for ministerial employees, blue is for "other" servants, and green is for non-central state administration office employees.
(Source: IDEA Cerge EI website screenshot taken on Wed Jan 1 10:17:13 2025 UTC)

Also, the figures used for Switzerland are not correct. According to a study published by Avenir Suisse (archived here), a Swiss-based think tank, the number of people employed by the state in Switzerland is significantly higher than 46,000. The think-tank study (archived here) published on April 26, 2023, titled "Government Growth out of Control" states that the public sector in the country employs 950,000 people, which is comparable to the figure of around one million indicated for state employees in the Czech Republic in the 2022 IDEA Cerge EI study.

Avenir´s study also says that of the actual Swiss state employees, one in ten works for the federal government, which would result in a total of 95,000 people, a number that could be comparable to the 76,000 civil servants listed, for the Czech Republic, in the updated IDEA Cerge El study. The Avenir study does not mention the 46,000 figure (archived here) indicated for Switzerland in the TikTok video. Neither a Google search (archived here) for the phrase "Switzerland has 46,000 state employees" carried out on January 8, 2025, yielded any result that could support the claim.


  Lead Stories Staff

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.

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Lead Stories is a U.S. based fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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