Employer branding firm Universum has just released its 2012 Cost of Talent Index, which ranks the anticipated salaries of college graduates in 20 countries.

What this is, it seems, is a study of what students say they “expect” to earn.

So, the winner of either the best paid or the most optimistic country is...Switzerland!

Swiss grads, reports Forbes, expect to take home a decent pre-tax income of $6,612 a month. Canada came in fourth with anticipated salaries of $4,594 a month. The worst of the top ten was the UK, where it rains a lot and folks say they expect to take in just $3,299. Why bother?

Here’s the full list.

The 2012 Cost of Talent Worldwide (monthly salary, pre-taxes):

No. 1 Switzerland, $6,612 (up 27.5% from 2011)

No. 2 Norway, $5,913 (down .5% from 2011)

No. 3 Denmark, $5,489 (up .4% from 2011)

No. 4 Canada, $4,594 (up 5.4% from 2011)

No. 5 Germany, $4,451 (up .3% from 2011)

No. 6 United States, $4,220 (down .8% from 2011)

No. 7 Sweden, $4,125 (up 3.1% from 2011)

No. 8 France, $3,766 (up .1% from 2011)

No. 9 Finland, $3,748 (down 3.4% from 2011)

No. 10 United Kingdom, $3,299 (down 1.5% from 2011)

Graduates in Switzerland expect to do better than last year, when the nation placed fourth in Universum's rankings and students anticipated salaries of $5,184. Note that the increase is a whopping 27.5%.

Canucks are next in terms of improvement with a less impressive but still substantial 5.4% -- we’re sitting at $4,594, up from $4,369 last year.

According to a new report from CIBC, the Canadian economy created 155,000 new jobs in the first six months of 2012 and these were high quality jobs. The report’s author Benjamin Tal, however, warns that the upward trajectory is unlikely to last. He says, “The slowing global economy will work not only to soften the pace of jobs creation in the coming quarters, but also decrease the quality of the jobs that are created."

The idea that a student’s expectations can tell us about a country’s economy is an odd one. But Swiss salaries are certainly high. I did a little calculating based on the information at Payscale.com and found that in Zug, the Swiss city with the highest reported income, the average monthly income is $8810. Not bad.

"The talent in a market is always one step ahead of the economy," says Universum CEO Petter Nylander. "These students care about their careers and are very well informed not just about companies but also the job market and possibilities of economic growth [in their countries]. This year's results seem to reflect not just the current weather—today's economy—but they are a sign of climate change. We expect to see some more big changes in the coming years."