Production is being relocated, order books are getting thinner, layoffs are happening, unemployment is rising, costs are rising – all of this is worrying Doris Hummer. “I’m not sleeping well at the moment,” says the president of the Upper Austrian Economic Chamber, who is worried about the future. Your conclusion: something has to change.
An increase of more than 5,000 job seekers compared to June 2023 and therefore an increase of 21.2% – the figures published by the employment agency on Monday also shocked Doris Hummer: “Employees are now effectively distributed across all industrial sectors.”
But it is not only the developments in the labor market that worry the chairman of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce. This is what Hummer says about…
- Economic development: “The number of bankruptcies is increasing, turnover is decreasing, profits are shrinking and even losses are occurring. We are struggling with the migration of production. Investments are being made elsewhere.”
- The current status of Upper Austria: “We have lost competitiveness and location quality. With wage costs we are ten percent higher than Germany.”
- Need for action: “We don’t have time anymore to say: growth will come or it will get better in the middle of the year. We need to implement structural reforms now.”
- The question of when reforms should be implemented: It is perfectly clear to us that a government that is, as it were, in the final phase of its term of office will no longer be able to initiate major reforms. But now the government programs for the coming period are being written.”
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Topics to be covered: “We need a clear commitment now to reduce non-wage labour costs. Nobody wants to take anything away from people. We also cannot afford to bypass these big structural reforms, such as pension reforms and labour market reforms, that is not possible.”
- Outlook: “If you look at the data, you must be sleeping extremely badly as those responsible for the republic. I’m not sleeping well at the moment, because we’ll see what happens. This year will be even more difficult. We haven’t reached the valley yet.”
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.
