Unemployment in Austria rose slightly again in January. At the end of the month, 421,207 people were looking for a job. The unemployment rate currently stands at 8.1 percent.
At the end of last year that was still 7.8 percent. In concrete terms, 343,828 people were unemployed in January and 77,379 people were following an AMS training course.
“This means that unemployment has increased slightly compared to the previous year, by 31,148 people. This is due to weaker economic momentum than last year. At the same time, the number of participants in the training courses increased by 4,451 people,” said Minister of Labor and Economy Martin Kocher (ÖVP) about the figures presented on Thursday.
There was a particularly strong year-on-year increase in the number of unemployed and training participants in Upper Austria (+12.8 percent), Styria (+9.9 percent) and Vorarlberg (+9.2 percent). However, unemployment has increased in all states.
Particularly strong increase among academics
The highest increase in the number of unemployed and participants in AMS training by sector occurred in healthcare and social services at 16.2 percent, followed by goods manufacturing (+13.8 percent), accommodation and catering (+8.3 percent), transport and storage (+8 percent) and trade (+7.8 percent). The relatively lowest increases occurred in temporary employment (+6.9 percent) and in construction (+6.6 percent).
There was a sharp increase in unemployment, especially among university-educated people (+17 percent), foreigners (+14.7 percent) and young people under the age of 25 (+11.5 percent).
Kocher underlines the positive trend among the long-term unemployed
Kocher calls the development in the field of long-term unemployment (looking for work for more than a year) positive. This peaked at 148,436 people in April 2021 and has almost halved since then.
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.
