The recovery in the labor market continued in 2022. The number of employees has increased, mainly due to more part-time work, and unemployment has fallen further. Every second woman works part-time. The job offer reached a record with 206,500 vacancies. According to Statistics Austria’s microcensus labor force survey according to the EU definition, 4,442,600 people aged 15 and over were in work, 3.2 percent more than in 2021. Almost two-thirds of the increase is due to part-time work.
Austria’s labor market is “in very good shape,” Austria’s director-general of statistics, Tobias Thomas, told the Concordia press club on Tuesday. “Overall, employment increased by 136,000 in ’22 compared to ’21.”
73,000 job openings more than reported to the AMS
However, the “other side of the coin” is that the number of vacancies has also increased significantly, reaching an average of 206,500 in 2022, according to Statistics Austria – a new high since the start of the time series in 2009. “That is almost 73,000 more vacancies than there are are registered with the AMS,” says Thomas. Traditionally, highly qualified jobs and vacancies in the public sector were reported less often to the AMS. The vacancy rate was 4.8 percent in 2022, which is significantly higher than the year before (3.5 percent ).
“Persistent labor shortage”
The number of job openings is increasing in all sectors of the economy, says Thomas. “It is also remarkable that 83 percent of the advertised positions were full-time positions.” There is now no longer a shortage of skilled workers, all occupational groups are affected, including office workers and unskilled workers. “In that respect, one can now with good reason speak of a continuing shortage of labor and no longer a shortage of skilled labour.”
The number of part-time workers increased by 7.0 percent or about 88,900 people. In contrast, according to Statistics Austria, there was an increase of 1.6 percent or 47,700 people in full-time employment.
Every second working woman works part-time
Every working woman (50.7 percent) and every eighth man (12.6 percent) report working part-time. “In 2022, we will have crossed the 50 percent mark for women for the first time,” says Matea Paškvan from Statistics Austria. Two-thirds of women cited their caring responsibilities (39.5 percent) or the desire to only work part-time (26.5 percent) as the main reason. Overall, the part-time rate was 30.5 percent.
Labor participation has risen slightly
The employment rate, the share of people in work among all persons aged 15 to 64, rose from 72.4 to a total of 74 percent. Despite an increase, the labor participation of 55 to 64-year-olds was still below average at 56.4 (55.4) percent. Overall, there was an increase to 70 (68.1) percent for women and 78 (76.7) percent for men. The employment rate for those born in Austria was 75.3 percent, for those not born in Austria it was 70.2 percent.
Unemployment according to the ILO definition fell by 62,600 to 221,100 people in 2022. The non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, 1.4 percentage points lower than last year’s figure of 6.2 percent. There were clear differences between men and women in the amount of work time they sought: 87.0 percent of unemployed males were mainly or exclusively looking for full-time work, compared to only 48.1 percent for women.
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.
