Preliminary booking figures point to a good winter season, but the lack of staff in the tourism and leisure industry still appears precarious. To combat the labor shortage, the seasonal quota will now be increased by another 400 people with immediate effect, the Labor Ministry announced on Wednesday. Criticism came from the FPÖ.
“The states with high tourism, where unemployment is particularly low and the domestic potential of workers is largely exhausted, will benefit from this increase,” said Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) according to the broadcast.
Number of seasonal quotas almost tripled
By July, 1,000 additional places had already been created, which means that there were around 3,000 places for seasonal workers in tourism throughout Austria. The number of seasonal quotas has almost tripled in one year.
“The renewed increase in seasonal quotas shows that this federal government still has no idea how to bring the huge shortage of skilled labor in our country under control in the long term,” criticized FPÖ deputy club president and social spokeswoman Dagmar Belakowitsch in a broadcast. The ÖVP is only about reducing wage costs.
State Secretary for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler (ÖVP) hoped for a good winter season and also said that the booking figures indicated that. However, recent weeks have shown that the existing booking potential, especially in the western federal states, cannot be fully exploited due to a lack of staff. “The recent increase in seasonal quotas is a targeted countermeasure,” says Kraus-Winkler.
“There is an urgent need for workers throughout the tourism and leisure industry,” said the chairman of the federal tourism and leisure industry department in the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). “Foreign employees are often the only way to deal with seasonal peaks.” Seeber also pointed out that many employers are taking measures to make working in the tourism and leisure sector more attractive. In this way it should be possible to attract more qualified employees.
Because despite the most recent reform of the red-white-red card and the conversion of the fixed seasonal arrangement into fixed law, the industry still lacked numerous employees. In addition, there are still ambiguities in the implementation of the latest reform of the red-white-red card, which must be clarified as soon as possible, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
