After two years of pandemic, the domestic labor market is increasingly immune to the challenges of the corona crisis: Unemployment in Austria was around 402,000 people at the end of the year, which is significantly lower than in the same period of the previous year (for details, see graphic). However, around 5,500 fewer people were unemployed than in December of the pre-crisis year 2019.
Johannes Kopf, head of the labor market service, spoke yesterday of a “very positive” development. The speed of recovery surprised all experts. The forecasts are also optimistic for this year. An overview:
- Less short-time work: 336,276 people were registered as unemployed at the turn of the year. In addition, 66,102 people attended training courses. The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent. Labor Minister Martin Kocher emphasized yesterday that the number of unemployed fell by around 130,000 in the course of 2021. The number of registrations for short-time working has also fallen sharply: in December this fell from 390,000 to 176,500 in a year-on-year comparison.
- Thousands of vacancies: In Upper Austria the unemployment rate was 5.5 percent at the end of the year: This is a decrease of 1.9 percentage points compared to the previous year and a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared to 2019. 39,000 people were unemployed. The annual unemployment rate was five percent. The number of vacancies in our state has really exploded: Compared to 2019, it has increased by 40 percent to 27,400.
- Problem of the long-term unemployed: The elderly and the long-term unemployed remain the problem children on the labor market. Across Austria, 115,700 people were long-term unemployed at the end of December: That is 20,800 more than in 2019. There are also 110,000 Austrians over 50 and registered as unemployed with the AMS. Kocher argued that 124,482 people were placed back into employment from unemployment for the full year. There has also been progress in the placement of older people. Long-term unemployment is to be combated with the “springboard project”: The peak reached in April (148,400 long-term unemployed) has been reduced.
- Unemployment benefit new: According to Kocher, there will be a concept for the new structure of unemployment benefits in the second quarter. A degressive model is likely: the amount decreases with the duration of unemployment.
Source: Nachrichten
