and 38 apartments (3.9%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 3.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.08%. The historical population is given in the following chart: Politics In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the Swiss People's Party (SVP) which received 42.2% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) (15.1%), the Social Democratic Party (SP) (9.8%) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) (6.7%). In the federal election, a total of 928 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 57.9%. Economy , Aeschi bei Spiez had an unemployment rate of 0.66%. , there were a total of 871 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 177 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 71 businesses involved in this sector. 123 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 20 businesses in this sector. 571 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 75 businesses in this sector. There were 970 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 42.0% of the workforce. there were a total of 625 full-time equivalent jobs. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 103, of which 101 were in agriculture and 1 was in forestry or lumber production. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 113 of which 24 or (21.2%) were in manufacturing and 89 (78.8%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 409. In the tertiary sector; 48 or 11.7% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 55 or 13.4% were in the movement and storage of goods, 108 or 26.4% were in a hotel or restaurant, 12 or 2.9% were technical professionals or scientists, 32 or 7.8% were in education and 120 or 29.3% were in health care. , there were 298 workers who commuted into the municipality and 497 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 1.7 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 10.6% used public transportation to get to work, and 52.4% used a private car. Religion From the , 150 or 7.4% were Roman Catholic, while 1,560 or 77.0% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church.