268,000 vacancies – The big gap in vacancies

Entrepreneurs are sighing at the shortage of workers. Due to a lack of personnel, the often high demand cannot be met. “Hotels are only 70 percent full because they don’t have enough people,” explains Kurt Egger, secretary general of the Economic Association, in the “Krone” interview. There are currently 268,000 vacancies for every 233,000 immediately available unemployed.

IT program evaluates current vacancies
However, according to AMS, there are only 141,000, a big gap. This is the result of an analysis by the Wirtschaftsbund: the “Job Monitor” shows not only the 141,000 vacancies registered with the AMS, but also the vacancies advertised in the largest job boards (eg karriere.at). An IT program checks for duplicates when companies advertise in multiple portals.

For example, if a locksmith would like to hire multiple employees, but only posts one ad, the position will only be counted once. “So the number is only the lower edge of the actual vacancy,” says Egger. With the “allejobs” platform, the AMS has also created a broader search offer. However, the data is not analyzed and no job count is reported. Therefore, in the public debate and, for example, when defining shortage occupations, only the jobs reported to the AMS are usually used.

Many do not report to the AMS
“We wanted to contribute to the debate after it was often said that for every job there are two or three unemployed. That’s just not true. The ratio is about 1:1,” Egger says. With the current shortage, entrepreneurs are looking for employees in various ways.

Also privately, many self-employed people admit that they prefer to use other portals because too few or “the wrong people” come to the AMS. Applicants who only show up for an interview for a stamp or who have been urged to do so by the AMS employee without initiative – many employees do not want these employees right from the start.

Trade and tourism are looking for many employees
Among the industries with the greatest need for skilled workers, retail is at the top. Office workers are also wanted. Traditionally, tourism has been in high demand and construction workers and IT personnel are also in demand (see graph). The three largest sectors together offer more than 115,000 vacancies.

Upper Austria has the most of the federal states. “Only in Vienna does the number of unemployed exceed the number of vacancies, even according to our calculations,” Egger says.