The positive development on the domestic labor market continues despite high energy prices and the Ukraine war. At the end of May, the number of unemployed and trainees was 20.6 percent lower than in the same month last year. 311,543 people were registered as unemployed or in training, which is 80,817 fewer than a year ago, the Ministry of Labor said. The numbers also fell compared to the previous month, at the end of April there were 327,308 people without a job.
The May jobless rate was 5.7 percent, the lowest in 14 years. At the end of May, more than 138,000 vacancies were reported as immediately available at the Public Employment Service (AMS). “After the record values of the past three months, this value represents an all-time high for vacancies on the Austrian labor market,” commented Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) on the current labor market data in a broadcast on Wednesday.
AMS boss expects numbers to continue to fall
AMS board member Johannes Kopf expects unemployment to fall even further. “The Austrian labor market appears to be practically unaffected by the economic forecasts, which have been revised significantly downwards due to the war, the high energy and raw material prices and the disruptions in the supply chains,” said Kopf. For the first time in a long time there will probably be fewer than 300,000 job seekers in June.
At the end of May, 49,492 people were pre-registered for short-time work. “Compared to the previous month, this means a decrease of 3,096 people in advance registrations for short-time work,” explained Labor Minister Kocher. This development shows “that the number of pre-registrations for short-time work is currently hardly influenced by the economic effects of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine”.
Source: Nachrichten
