will my last part-time job affect unemployment benefits after full-time developer job + vocational school?
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to understand how the Swiss RAV will likely calculate my unemployment benefits and I’m getting mixed answers, so I’d really appreciate real experiences.
Here’s my situation:
I worked full-time as a Frontend Developer until July 2025 (~75k CHF/year).
After that, I started a full-time vocational school (Berufsmaturität) from Aug 2025 to June 2026.
During this school period, I worked a small part-time job (~20%, 24 CHF/hour) just to cover basic expenses.
This part-time job was never my main income source — I mainly lived off savings and still made a loss each month due to rent (~1000 CHF), health insurance (~380 CHF), etc.
I will be unemployed after finishing school in June 2026 and will register with RAV.
My questions:
Will RAV likely use my last part-time job (20%) as the basis for unemployment benefits?
Or can they use my previous full-time developer salary instead?
Has anyone been in a similar situation where a part-time “side job” during studies was NOT treated as the main reference income?
How strict are they with the “last job counts” rule in practice?
I understand the official rule is usually “last insured income,” but I’m wondering how it is handled in real cases where the last job was clearly just a side job during full-time education.
Any real experiences or insights would be appreciated.