Of these, 305,924 people are looking for work, 70,347 are taking part in training measures. This means that the number of people registered as unemployed with the AMS has risen slightly in a weekly comparison, but is below the pre-crisis level. 40,000 more people are registered for short-time work than a week ago. A week ago 372,109 people were unemployed, of which 300,121 were registered as unemployed and 71,988 people were in training courses.
The rise in unemployment this week is 5,803 people – according to the Ministry of Labor, an uncharacteristically small increase for this time of the year. For comparison: Unemployment rose by 15,919 people in the comparison week of 2020, and by 22,510 people in 2019, the year before the crisis. In 2019, 389,533 people were specifically unemployed or in training (326,848 registered as unemployed, 62,685 training participants). In 2020 there were significantly more people affected by unemployment, namely 484,453 people (420,249 unemployed, 64,204 in training).
Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) expects a smaller increase in the next few weeks than in the previous year. “Both the number of those registered as unemployed with the AMS and the number of unemployed including training courses are currently well below the level of 2020, and it is to be expected that unemployment will not rise as high as in the next few weeks last year.” From a labor market policy point of view, it is of course very desirable that the pandemic development does not make further stricter restrictions necessary.
With the only slight increase in unemployment, the gap between 2019 and the pre-crisis year has widened again. “The number of people registered as unemployed with the AMS is currently 20,924 people below the level for the same period in 2019. Even including training participants, unemployment is again below the level of 2019, namely 13,262 people.
148,796 people are currently registered for short-time work, a week ago there were only 108,802 people, an increase of around 40,000 people. “In the past few weeks we have been able to observe that the companies do not apply for short-time working to the extent of the previous year. A further increase in advance registrations is still to be expected due to retroactive applications,” explains Kocher.
Source: Nachrichten
