“The economic forecasts are basically good, even if there are some brake blocks,” said Doris Hummer, head of the Wirtschaftsbund, referring to delivery bottlenecks, high raw material prices and the shortage of skilled workers. There are also major sectoral differences: Many companies are still massively affected by the corona crisis and have been slowed down by lockdowns.
During a press conference on Monday, Hummer and Wirtschaftsbund regional manager Wolfgang Greil informed about well-known and new challenges: The biggest problem for Upper Austrian companies is and will be the shortage of skilled workers. According to the economic barometer of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce, 58 percent were affected in winter 2020, a year later it is 79 percent. The energy prices are five times as high as a year ago. Supply chain problems were also mentioned twice as often year-on-year.
The situation will remain challenging this year, said Hummer: “We are basically going into the new year with optimism.” It is important that the companies are allowed to keep them open. The economic aid for companies affected by the pandemic would “basically work well for a large part,” said Greil: For those who have no entitlement, for example because they were only founded during the pandemic, efforts are being made to find solutions.
Competence center planned
In addition to the corona crisis management, Hummer named the fight against the labor shortage and the strengthening of companies for digital and ecological transformation as priorities for the current year. A competence center for climate-neutral production is to be created as a contact point for companies in 2022. For this, the economic association is demanding an additional innovation budget of 100 million euros from the state of Upper Austria when fully expanded.
Source: Nachrichten
