Postdoctoral Researcher / Scientific Collaborator: Social Production Satellite Account for Switzerland

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• Aligning the established social production method with European System of Accounts (ESA 2010), adapting how it is applied and reported while preserving the underlying methodology.
• Mapping the social production categories to available SAKE data, assessing coverage, and conducting a gap analysis of categories not yet captured.
• Compiling and analysing the relevant Swiss data sources to produce the pilot account's first estimates.
• Building the account into a working statistical product, documented and reproducible so that it could be updated on a regular cycle by Switzerland and/or other nations wishing to adopt the approach.
• Co-authoring research and policy outputs, including a joint report on social production in Switzerland.
• Preparing a methodological report setting out options to extend category coverage, with recommendations for Switzerland and a generalisable approach that other national statistical offices could follow.
• Working in person within the National Accounts Division and liaising across FSO units to resolve questions of definition, derivation, and method.
• Maintaining reproducible workflows and documentation consistent with official statistics standards.

Essential:

• A doctorate in economics, applied statistics, or a quantitative social science or data science.
• Familiarity with national accounts concepts and conventions (ESA 2010), ideally including satellite accounting.
• Demonstrated skills in handling survey and time-use microdata.
• A strong command of time-series and index methods, including constant-price adjustment.
• A translational research orientation, comfortable working across an academic research team and a national statistical office and communicating with policy audiences.
• Working proficiency in German or French, together with English.

Desirable:

• Experience with time-use surveys or unpaid-work modules in labour force surveys.
• A systems-oriented perspective on demographic change, the care economy, fiscal sustainability, and the intersection of market and non-market production.
• Experience working in or with a statistical office or national accounts setting.
• A record of peer-reviewed publication and technical reporting.

What we offer:

• The opportunity to build the first social production satellite account established within a national statistical office, an innovation in national accounting with international reach.
• A role embedded in official statistics while contributing to frontier research, with training in the social production accounting method from the University of Sydney's Mental Wealth Initiative.
• Support through co-supervision across the three partners and connection to an international research and policy network spanning ageing, health, and economic measurement.
• Employment on University of Zurich terms, with salary set according to UZH and Canton of Zurich guidelines for postdoctoral researchers.
• A clearly defined three-year horizon to deliver a programme of work with direct policy relevance.

Working arrangement and independence:
The position is employed by the University of Zurich Healthy Longevity Centre. Working time is divided between the FSO National Accounts Division in Neuchâtel, where the day-to-day work sits, and the UZH Centre for Healthy Longevity, with research supervision shared between the partners under a light joint-oversight arrangement. A clear separation is maintained between FSO-hosted research and official statistics, and no output carries the FSO's name without its approval. The underlying method is published and open. Our employees benefit from a wide range of attractive offers. Find out more: https://www.uzh.ch/de/explore/work.html.