Image: Volker Weihbold
According to calculations by Synthesis Research for the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ), domestic companies will be short of around 363,000 workers by 2040. If this development is not counteracted, the gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by around nine percent by 2040 and be around 50 billion euros lower than with sufficient workers. The cumulative costs of the labor shortage from 2023 to 2040 would amount to 150 billion euros.
“The labor shortage is costing the economy more than the total tax revenue for a year,” said WKÖ President Harald Mahrer in a broadcast. These costs are “foreseeable and avoidable” and one must “immediately take countermeasures in order not to let them become real in the coming years”.
According to Mahrer, it is important to create a system that pays off extra work. In addition, you have to have an honest debate about what options there are. This includes, for example, tax-free income for those who want to continue working after retirement, and more incentives for overtime through tax-free overtime.
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