Sharp increase in unemployment in December.
The corona crisis has been determining the situation on the labor market for over ten months. The number of unemployed and training participants at the end of December was almost 28 percent higher than at the end of 2019. 520,919 were registered as unemployed or in training, which is 113,047 more than a year ago. For the first time there will be more than 500,000 unemployed in winter 2020/2021.
The corona-related peak was reached in mid-April with 588,000 job seekers. According to the Public Employment Service (AMS), the unemployment rate in Austria was 11 percent in December, which was 2.5 percentage points higher than in December 2019. The number of employees fell by 1.4 percent to 3.716 million, according to a forecast. The number of immediately available jobs fell by 22.7 percent to 50,610.
The number of people on short-time work rose by 140,000 compared to the previous month. According to the Ministry of Labor, 417,113 people are currently on short-time work. So far, the AMS has paid out around 5.5 billion euros for the Corona short-time work. 9.9 billion euros are currently approved.
“At the end of December 2020, the lack of a start to the season in winter tourism has a clear impact on the unemployment caused by the crisis,” said Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher (ÖVP) in a broadcast on Monday. “Together with the seasonal effects in construction, which are within the usual framework, the situation on the labor market is currently extremely challenging.” Aschbacher also referred to bright spots on the job market. “We were able to place 607,704 people back in the past year, which is 1 percent more than in 2019.” This shows how dynamic the labor market is despite the crisis.
“The most difficult year on the labor market for decades is saying goodbye with really bad unemployment figures,” said AMS board member Johannes Kopf, commenting on the current figures. The third lockdown leads to a more than doubling of unemployment in gastronomy and tourism compared to the previous year. “The seemingly obvious conclusion that short-time work does not work in this branch is wrong,” said the AMS boss. With almost 100,000 employees on short-time work, tourism is currently the front runner in all industries when it comes to “saving jobs”.
At the end of December, 79,584 people in the hotel and catering industry were out of work, an increase of almost 114 percent compared to the end of 2019. The increase in unemployed people and training participants was also high in other sectors, in transport and storage (+41.5 percent), health and Social affairs (+22.6 percent) and in the manufacture of goods (+21.7 percent). The rise in unemployment in construction and in temporary workers was significantly lower, at 11.1 percent each.
The labor market development differs greatly according to the federal states. The lowest increase in unemployment and training participants at the end of December compared to the end of 2019 was in Lower Austria (+15.1 percent), Burgenland (+16.0 percent), Upper Austria (+16.9 percent), Styria (+21 percent) , Carinthia (+21.2 percent) and Vienna (+22.6 percent). The increase was significantly stronger in Vorarlberg (+48.2 percent), Salzburg (+82.6 percent) and Tyrol (+129.5 percent).
Across Austria, many unemployed people spend a long time looking for jobs. The number of long-term unemployed at the end of December was 136,620, an increase of 37.3 percent over the previous year.
The labor market service also published the annual average unemployment on Monday morning. In 2020 as a whole there were 466,746 unemployed and training participants, an increase of 28.5 percent compared to 2019. “Even if light is already on the horizon, this crisis is not over yet,” said AMS board member Kopf. “Many problems, especially the rise in long-term unemployment, will preoccupy us for a long time.”
