Galloping consumption

Job advertisements played the main role in the decline in newspaper advertising at the end of the year: according to the advertising statistics of the Swiss press, they fell by 33.1 percent by November, while the total number of advertising pages shrank by 11.8 percent. The free newspapers even lost 43.9 percent of their job advertisement pages. The Publicitas job index plummeted by 54.9 points to 121.6 points by October. Nevertheless, there is also some positive news to report: Unlike the global index, the job index has so far not fallen below the starting point (100) of 1994. And the fall has slowed considerably in recent months. The last time the index was this low - in June 1997 - the trough had been reached. In the months that followed, the curve soared to the dizzying heights of 338.2 points. (sm)