The labor market is against the downturn – diepresse.com
Austria’s job market is surprisingly good despite the recession. Employment also increased. A drop of bitterness is the falling working time.
Vienna. It was going better in Austria. Last week, the economic researchers corrected their forecasts down: Austria will remain the third year in the recession this year. This is already the longest downturn in the history of the second republic. And even for 2026, the economists no longer rule out an extension of the recession. However, this is not fully reflected on the job market. This is shown by numbers of the labor market service (AMS) from Tuesday: 397,000 people were unemployed in Austria in March, including almost 81,000 in a training course.
This is an increase of 7.4 percent compared to March of the previous year. However, « the job market is still relatively stable, » analyzed Petra Draxl, head of the AMS, on Tuesday. Unemployment « did not increase as much as the economically tense situation could expect. »
Good figures came from the euro zone on Tuesday, where unemployment in February (latest available figures) surprisingly dropped to a record low. 10.58 million people were in the euro area without a job, gave Eurostat known. According to the international calculation, the unemployment rate fell from 6.2 to 6.1 percent and thus to the deepest level since the introduction of the euro in 1999.
The decline in unemployment in the euro zone is all the more astonishing, as well as the euro zone does not get off the spot economically. The positive development is due to improvements in the unemployment rate in southern Europe, said Kamil Kovar from Moody’s Analytics to Reuters. However, the impending tariffs of the Trump administration will stop this trend.
Industry badly affected
In Austria there were the strongest climbs of unemployment figures in March in industry with 14.9 percent. 11,000 jobs were dismantled in the trade, the number of unemployed rose by 9.1 percent. The number of employees reached a new record in February with 3.93 million. Employment in the areas of public administration, hospitals and care of older and impaired people increased particularly strongly. From a region, there was the slightest increase in unemployment in Lower Austria and Burgenland. In Tyrol, on the other hand, unemployment increased by 15.5 percent.
Economic researchers expect unemployment to continue to increase this year, although the labor market « in the face of the duration and severity of the recession is relatively robust », the WiFo writes in its forecast from the previous week. According to the Wifo forecast shrink by 0.3 percent this year. Economists are concerned about a continuing trend: Although employment continued to increase in the previous year. At the same time, however, working hours per employee fell by 1.4 percent. For this year, the economists forecast a further decline in working hours by 0.4 percent. « It is not until 2026 that working hours per employee should again increase light by 0.3 percent, » write the economists of the WIFO.
The Institute for Higher Studies (IHS) also presented its new economic forecast last week and speaks of a « labor market situation stable in a historical comparison ». Stagnating employment and slightly rising unemployment figures can be expected for the coming months. The IHS expects that the employment only takes a little time in the course of 2026 and unemployment sinks. The unemployment rate is likely to increase to 7.5 percent this year and decrease to 7.3 percent next year.
More women on the job market
A certain movement currently comes into the labor market due to the increasing regular pension age for women: starting in January 2024, the age limit for the normal age pension of women is increased by six months by 2033. In 2033 it should be 65 years and thus at the level of men. « This means that more women aged 60 and over will be active on the labor market in the next few years, » the AMS writes in a special evaluation on Tuesday.
The first labor-relevant effects can already be measured: In 2024, the employment of women aged 60 increased by almost 12,000 people compared to 2023, the AMS report says. However, unemployment in this age group in 2024 was also more than 2023. (Hie)
