At the end of January 535,470 people were unemployed, at the end of December there were 520,919
The ongoing corona lockdown and the lack of a start to the winter season in tourism continue to weigh on the labor market. The number of unemployed and training participants at the end of January was 27 percent higher than in the same month last year. 535,470 people were registered as unemployed or in AMS training, that is 114,769 more than in January 2020. For comparison: at the end of December 520,919 people were unemployed.
The corona-related peak was reached in mid-April 2020 with 588,000 unemployed. The unemployment rate in Austria at the end of January was 11.4 percent, 2.8 percentage points higher than in January 2020. Two years ago the unemployment rate in January was 9 percent.
At the end of January, around 470,000 people were also on short-time work. In total, the Public Employment Service (AMS) has paid out around 5.9 billion euros for the Corona short-time work so far. According to the AMS, around 1.2 million employees – 43 percent women and 57 percent men – received short-time working allowance in 2020. For phase 3 of short-time work, which runs until the end of March, 4.5 billion euros have currently been approved. Last week, the 2021 budget for short-time working was increased from 5 billion to 7 billion euros due to the high demand.
“The January balance sheet shows that we are still in a very difficult situation on the labor market due to the pandemic,” said Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP), commenting on the current unemployment figures in a broadcast on Monday. “The lockdown that is necessary due to the epidemiological situation is particularly noticeable.”
