More than half of Switzerland's large companies have non-Swiss bosses, a study published Monday by the recruitment consultancy Heidrick and Struggles found.

A total of 52 percent of CEOs from the firms on the SMI Expanded stock exchange that comprises the 50 most highly capitalized securities in the Swiss equity market are from abroad.

A year ago, a first evaluation of the profiles of Swiss executives showed the figure to be 49 percent, the Swiss news agency Keystone-SDA reported.

The study looked at the CEOs of listed companies in 13 countries. The percentage of foreign CEOs is also relatively high in Britain (43 percent) and the Netherlands (40 percent).

However, local CEOs dominate in France (88 percent), the United States (90 percent) and in Portugal, where every single CEO was home-grown.

"The high proportion of foreign CEOs reflects the global activities of many (Swiss) companies as well as the uncomplicated labor market in Switzerland," said Michael Oberwegner, managing partner at Heidrick & Struggles.

He gave the examples of Novartis headed by American Vasant Narasimhan, and Zurich Insurance led by Italian Mario Greco.

The study showed that the CEOs of Swiss companies are relatively young and have a range of professional backgrounds. It revealed that the average age of Swiss CEOs is 54, while the average age in all 13 countries is 56. A quarter of the Swiss CEOs are under 50.

"This shows that Switzerland is a country with a dynamic labor market, which presents an opportunity for skilled workers with highly diverse qualifications," Oberwegner said.

For female CEOs, the situation has barely improved. The share of female CEOs in Switzerland is 2 percent, while the average of all countries is around 5 percent. In Britain, Finland and Norway, 8 percent of CEOs are female, the study showed.