
Unemployment in Austria continues to rise, with 354,665 people registered with the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) by the end of September.
Of this number, 279,730 were unemployed and 74,935 were participating in AMS training programmes.
Compared to the same month last year, the number of unemployed and training participants rose by 10.6%, or 33,905 people. The unemployment rate climbed by 0.6% to 6.6%.
“Unfortunately, neither the economic outlook nor the figures for unemployment and job vacancies suggest an imminent improvement,” said AMS Director Petra Draxl in a statement.
By the end of September, the largest increases in unemployment and AMS training participants compared to the previous year were recorded in manufacturing/industry (up 17%), transport and storage (up 12.3%), construction (up 12%), trade (up 11.9%), and catering and accommodation (up 11.2%).
The rise in unemployment was slightly lower in the temporary employment sector (up 7.4%) and the health and social services sector (up 7.2%).
The shrinking economy is also taking its toll on Austria’s job market. By the end of September, just under 91,568 vacancies were listed as immediately available by the AMS, a decrease of around 14% compared to the same month last year.
The ÖVP-Wirtschaftsbund’s job monitor, which tracks all job portals, recorded over 161,400 vacancies. Meanwhile, the number of people employed in the country dropped slightly by 0.2%, or 8,000 people, to 3.98 million.
Salzburg saw the highest increase in unemployment and training participants (up 15.9%), followed by Upper Austria (up 15.8%), Tyrol (up 15.5%), Styria (up 13.5%), and Vorarlberg (up 10.7%).
Slightly smaller increases were reported in Vienna (up 8.8%), Burgenland (up 8.3%), Carinthia (up 8.1%), and Lower Austria (up 8.0%).