The corona crisis still has a firm grip on the labor market. Around 533,000 people are currently unemployed.
“The acute management of the pandemic continues to have priority,” said Labor Minister Martin Kocher at the beginning of the press conference. 533,512 people are currently unemployed in Austria, 112,000 more than in the previous year and an increase of 761 compared to the previous week.
Above all, the lack of a start to the season in tourism and gastronomy is one reason for the high number. “We wanted earlier opening steps, but they are too risky,” said Kocher.
A total of 73,000 people are unemployed in tourism, 40,000 more than in the previous year. A total of 468,000 people are registered as unemployed with the AMS, 65,000 are in training.
As Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger emphasized, the labor market in tourism should be prepared for the time after the pandemic. The focus is on training and further education for specialists, e.g. learning foreign languages.
The labor minister expects stagnation in the next few weeks. However, reducing unemployment is only possible with an opening.
There was a huge increase in short-time work. It remains the crisis instrument in this pandemic. 440,384 people are currently on short-time work, almost 26,000 more than last week. So far, around 5.7 billion euros have been paid out for short-time working, and 4.3 billion euros have been approved for phase three.
