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Employment in Austria

Austria is a charming place with her picturesque beauty of mountains. This has made Austria popular with visitors and immigrants alike. Many job seekers are also attracted by the falling unemployment numbers.

 

The employment of foreign citizens is regulated by the Act on the Employment of Foreigners. In order to take up legal employment in Austria, a valid residence permit is required alongside a permit from the labour market authorities.

 

The Act on the Employment of Foreigners is enforced by the offices of the Public Employment Service (AMS). Entry to the country and residence are regulated by the 2005 Immigration Authorities Act and the Settlement and Residency Act. The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for these fields.

 

The registration of workers from the new EU member states is also regulated by the Act on the Employment of Foreigners for as long as the transitional arrangements for the free movement of labour established in the accession treaties still apply. However, there are a range of alleviating special provisions.

 

Employment and unemployment rate

 

Austria’s labour market policy takes its cue from both the European Employment Strategy (EES or “Lisbon Strategy”) and the guidelines of the European Social Fund (ESF). Its National Action Plan for Employment (NAP) represents the country’s implementation of the European Employment Strategy and has been in place since the Luxembourg employment summit of November 1997.

 

The EU Commission refocused the Lisbon Strategy, approving a new “package of integrated guidelines” for the period 2005 to 2008. This is intended to boost growth and create more jobs in Europe.

 

Austria’s domestic labour market has been posting sound key data for many years. While the number of unemployed is continually falling and is only half the EU average, employment and new job offers are constantly reaching new highs. Reflecting this trend, the unemployment rate in Austria went down in 2006 from 5.2 % to 4.7 % (not seasonally adjusted; annual average approximately 196,000 people), constituting the fourth-lowest value among the EU-27 countries (Sources: Statistics Austria, Micro-Census of the Labour Force Annual Results 2006; Eurostat), while the EU average was 7.9 % (according to Eurostat). In Austria, women were more often affected by unemployment than men (with rates of 5.2 % and 4.3 % respectively), while young people aged between 15 and 24 years were almost twice as likely to be jobless (with a rate of 9.1%) compared to the overall average (Statistics Austria).

 

In 2007, Austria’s favourable economic situation (export boom) and its active labour market policy will again significantly lower its unemployment rate. Forecasts project that the jobless rate will fall to about 4.3 % in both 2007 and 2008 (Austrian Institute of Economic Research / Institute for Advanced Studies, according to Eurostat).

 

The target is to lower the unemployment rate to less than 4 % by 2010, thus achieving full employment. The country’s employment situation has developed in a similarly positive way relative to the other EU Member States. Particularly in the areas of long-term unemployment and youth joblessness, Austria has for years been one of the EU countries posting the best values or lowest unemployment rate measured in terms of the employment status of the population. The employment rate in Austria is above the EU average and continues to go up, currently standing at 70.2 % (all employed people as a proportion of the population aged between 15 and 64 years). Thus, the EU’s employment target of 70 % of all employed people (selfemployed, family members assisting in business and employed) has clearly been met. Austria is ranked fifth among the EU-27 countries (average: 63 %). In 2006, the overall employment rate for women was 63.5 % and that for men 76.9 %. Half of all Austrians are gainfully employed. Nine out of ten gainfully employed people work as employees (i.e. not in a self-employed capacity). In 2006, some 3.4 million (out of a total of 3.9 million) employed Austrians were in an employer-employee relationship (Source: Statistics Austria), of whom 1.6 million (47.1 %) were women and 1.8 million (52.9 %) men. In 2006, the number of employed people grew by approximately 80,000 (+2.4 % compared with 2005), representing the biggest rise in employment since 1992. Roughly half of these were in full-time jobs, while the other half worked part-time. 41.6 % of women were employed part-time, while for men the proportion was 5.9 % (Statistics Austria).

 

For 2007 as a whole, experts anticipate a further rise in the number of employed people of between 1.9 % (Austrian Institute of Economic Research) and 2.0 % (Institute for Advanced Studies), three quarters of them in full-time jobs. And for 2008 they project a growth in employment of between 0.8 % (Austrian Institute of Economic Research) and 1.1 % (Institute for Advanced Studies) (Forecast for the Economy June 2007).

 

The trend in employment for young people is also positive. In 2006, the total number of young people in employment – taking the average for the year – increased by 11,700 (+2.2 % compared with 2005) to 533,300 (Statistics Austria). This means that, following the downturn in employment in 2001 and 2002, their employment level again reached that of 2000. Relative to the population as a whole, the employment rate in this age group was 54%. The year 2006 also saw a substantial rise in the total number of older people in employment (55 – 64 years). Compared with the previous year, their number – taking the average for the year – increased by some 30,200 to 330,700, meaning that the employment rate in this group went up from 31.8% (2005) to 35.5% (2006).

 

Labour market and employment policy measures aimed at particular target groups, for example women (gender-related development budgets), older employees (lower ancillary wage costs, protected employment relationships, reintegration) or young people (apprenticeship programmes, support for apprenticeship places in-house), are helping boost employment. The most recent reforms aimed at modernising the labour market policy framework
(the Labour Market Reform Act which has been in force since 1 January 2005), as well as structural adaptations of the labour administration, are increasing the flexibility of the labour market. Over the next few years, the resources to be allocated to Austria’s active labour market policy will amount to EUR 930 million annually.

 

Also planned for the beginning of 2008 are new, more flexible working hours models with maximum working times of up to 12 hours a day and 60 hours a week. These necessary steps to increase flexibility will be rounded out by measures to strengthen social cohesion – including initiatives to make family and job more compatible.

 

With incentives to increase the flexibility of working hours to create a work-life balance for workers in place, Austria will probably remain attractive for job seekers.

Source: Bka, Bmask

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