535,470 people were registered as unemployed with the AMS in January 2021, 14,551 more than in the previous month, said Minister Kocher.
Of the more than 535,000 people who were unemployed or in training, around 115,000 people lost their jobs because of the corona pandemic, said Labor Minister Martin Kocher in a broadcast on Monday. Especially in tourism, the lockdown “continues to show clear effects” due to the lack of a season start. Unemployment in tourism is twice as high this year as in the same period of the previous year.
Unemployment in the retail sector is also “significantly higher” and is roughly a third above the previous year's level. On the positive side, around 45,000 unemployed people took up employment again in January. The number of people registered as unemployed with the AMS is 468,330, and 67,140 are currently in training. A total of 535,470 people are currently registered as unemployed with the AMS or are in training.
That is an increase of 14,551 people compared to the previous month. “The number of people in training, in particular, has increased by around 6,000 compared to the previous month. This shows that the AMS is continuing to expand its training activities even during the lockdown,” said Kocher. The most affected sectors are tourism, trade and the construction sector, the worst affected federal states are Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg.
“According to the national definition, the unemployment rate is currently 11.4 percent. This is a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percentage points,” said Kocher. According to Eurostat, the international unemployment rate in December 2020 was 5.8 percent, the youth unemployment rate 11.0 percent. At the end of January, around 470,000 people were also on short-time work, so far around 5.9 billion euros have been paid out for Corona short-time work. Until the end of March, 4.5 billion euros have been approved for short-time working.
