Why is the same job posted several times?
Updated:
In short
Usually because it is not the same job. About a fifth of all Swiss adverts belong to a group sharing an identical job title and employer — and nearly two thirds of those groups span several locations. These are retail chains, hospital groups and trades firms filling the same function at different sites.
The rest, roughly a third of those groups, sit at the same location. Those are the genuine repeats: several openings for the same function at one employer, re-advertisements after an unsuccessful search, or the same advert running through different channels.
Practically: apply once, but to the right site. Two applications to the same posting do not make a better impression — two applications to two branches of the same chain are entirely normal.
Share of all adverts by groups sharing an identical job title and employer. Ongoing analysis, as of August 2026.
- About four in five adverts appear exactly once.
- Of the functions that repeat, roughly two thirds are spread across different locations.
- Retail chains lead the list — one single sales function at a large retailer appears across more than forty sites.
- Optician chains, discounters and recruitment agencies also advertise the same function in many places.
- A re-advertisement weeks later is a signal: that role still has not found anyone.
The most common reason: one chain, many branches
We grouped every tracked advert by identical job title and identical employer. About a fifth of the whole index sits in such groups — and in nearly two thirds of them the places of work differ.
The pattern is strongest in retail. A single sales function at one large Swiss retailer appears across more than forty different locations; at an optician chain and a discounter it is nearly thirty each. For these employers that is not spam but the only way to make site-bound roles visible.
For you that is good news: each of those listings is a separate, real job with its own team, its own roster and its own manager. You are not competing with every applicant to the chain, only with those who want that same branch.
The practical mistake would be to skim past the list as repetition. Filter by your location instead and apply deliberately to the two or three branches you can reach — same CV, but the right site named in each letter.
When the same role repeats at the same location
If the location stays the same, there are three explanations. The simplest first: the employer genuinely needs several people for the same function — common in nursing, hospitality, logistics and production, where whole shifts get filled.
The second is re-advertisement. A role reappearing after some weeks found nobody on the first attempt. That is a positive signal for you: pressure on the employer has risen, the field of candidates was too small, and willingness to bend the requirements grows with every repeat.
The third is the channel. The same advert can run simultaneously through the careers page, an applicant tracking system and an agency portal. That also explains why you see the same role on several websites — and why the application still ends up in the same system.
In all three cases, apply exactly once. Duplicate applications to identical postings land in the same inbox and read as inattentive rather than keen.
Why the same job appears on several sites
An employer filling a role rarely publishes it in only one place. The usual set is their own careers page, one or two large portals, and depending on the occupation a sector platform — healthcare, social work and education all have their own Swiss channels with their own audiences.
Then there are intermediaries. A noticeable share of Swiss adverts comes not from the employer but from recruitment agencies and hiring platforms advertising the same role under their own name. That is why you occasionally see the same function once with a company name and once anonymised.
This is legitimate and common, but it has a consequence: do not apply in parallel both directly and through an agency for the same role. If your application arrives twice, an awkward question about placement commission lands on the employer's desk, and that harms you of all people.
If you are unsure which route is right: going direct to the employer is the normal case in Switzerland — about half of all adverts lead to a page belonging to the company anyway.
When repeats are a warning sign
Harmless repeats name a concrete location, name the employer, and carry a task list that differs between listings only in the place. That is the normal case.
Pay attention when the same very generic title — "staff wanted", "earn from home" — appears with changing company names and no concrete place of work. Likewise when applying leads to a private messaging profile rather than a form or a company address.
A real warning sign is any payment up front. No reputable Swiss employer asks for money before hiring — for documents, courses, equipment or a permit — and nobody needs your bank details or a copy of your ID during the application process before a contract exists.
When in doubt, check the company through its own website and the commercial register, and call the number in the advert. A reputable employer welcomes the call; with a dubious listing the number usually does not exist.
How to use the repeats to your advantage
Treat a re-advertisement as an invitation. When the same role reappears after four or six weeks, the employer has not become choosier but more impatient. That is exactly when an application that might have been too thin the first time becomes worth making.
Use chains as a way into a region. Starting at a retailer, a clinic group or an optician chain lets you transfer internally to another site later — for new arrivals that is one of the least complicated routes to any Swiss work experience at all.
And have new adverts reported to you rather than searching manually. Because the same function appears in many places and through several channels, manual searching is precisely the work that pays off worst.
If you are registered with the RAV, document each application with its location and date. Two applications to two branches of the same chain are two job-search efforts — the same application submitted twice is not.
What people report
The administrative effort around documenting applications is repeatedly described as a burden in its own right, with the explicit problem that adverts go offline in the meantime and the evidence is then missing. With repeatedly advertised functions this gets worse, because the same role appears under several addresses.
Recurring theme in German-language LinkedIn posts by jobseekers and advisers, reviewed August 2026.
Recruiting describes applications arriving with no visible connection to the advertised role — documents that could equally well have gone to a completely different organisation. With retail chains that stands out especially, because a missing reference to the site is immediately visible.
Recurring theme in German-language LinkedIn posts from recruiting professionals, reviewed August 2026.
Shares from our ongoing analysis of the Swiss job adverts we track, as of August 2026. A group is what carries the same normalised job title and the same employer name; differing spellings of one title are therefore counted separately, so the stated share is more of a lower bound. We publish shares, not absolute inventory figures.
Sources
Related questions
What our job index says about the Swiss market
Computed live from our own index, not quoted from a study. Shares only, as of today.
Language the advert is written in
- Deutsch
- 60%
- English
- 23%
- Français
- 13%
- Italiano
- 3%
Of adverts that state a language requirement, the share asking for
- Deutsch
- 70%
- English
- 43%
- Français
- 21%
- Italiano
- 3%
19% posted in the last 7 days · Largest markets: Zürich 18% · Bern 10% · Genève 5% · Basel 5%