Styrian Labor Market Struggles: Unemployment Spikes as Austria Slips into Recession

“Austria has slipped into a stubborn recession, particularly the challenging situations in industry and the construction sector and their effects on the Styrian labor market are causing uncertainty,” says Karl-Heinz Snobe, regional manager of the AMS Styria. This is also reflected in the currently published labor market data: As of the end of February 2024, 40,450 people were registered as unemployed with the Styrian AMS – compared to the same month last year, this corresponds to “a significant increase of 3,863 people or 10.6 percent”. Unemployment among men rose by 12.2 percent to 25,575, and among women by 7.9 percent to 14,875. Including the 8,882 participants in training, 49,332 Styrians were without a job (plus 4,587 people, plus 10.3 percent).

The estimated number of employed people across Styria fell slightly to 540,000 people (minus 0.1 percent), the unemployment rate is 7.0 percent (plus 0.6 percentage points). A total of 12,486 vacancies were reported by local companies at the AMS Styria at the end of February, a decrease from the previous year of 3843 vacancies or minus 23.5 percent.

Work program of the AMS Styria decided

The primary labor market policy goal of the AMS remains “to bring as many unemployed people as possible into employment; Specifically, at least 26,704 women and 42,378 men should take up employment with AMS support in the first six months of their unemployment,” says the AMS Styria work program that has just been drawn up, which was decided this week by the state directorate made up of social partners. This should be achieved with the “early intervention approach”, through the increased use of job exchanges and through the matching according to skills introduced this year: “When finding jobs, we no longer look at job titles, but at the skills in demand. This will make the placement process even more efficient and digital and potentially attract applicants for vacancies that would not have been found before,” says AMS deputy state manager Yvonne Popper-Pieber.

2024-03-01 16:58:06
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