According to data from the Public Employment Service, 333,954 people were unemployed or in training at the end of the month, which is 1,933 people or 0.6 percent fewer than in the previous year. According to national calculations, the unemployment rate was 6.2 percent and thus 0.2 percentage points lower than in March 2022. The number of vacancies has also decreased.
“Although the economic rally is obviously over, the AMS can once again – and thus for the 25th time in a row – announce falling unemployment,” commented AMS boss Johannes Kopf on the development. However, around half of the federal states and young people are already showing rising unemployment figures. Head expects a slowdown in the coming months.
Youth unemployment rose by 4.9 percent compared to the previous year, while the trend among older people (50 years and older) continued to be positive at minus 6.1 percent. As in February, there was an increase among men (plus 1.5 percent), while among women there was a renewed decrease of minus 3 percent. With regard to male unemployment, Kopf pointed to falling employment in construction, which is the main reason for the increased unemployment.
Viewed by federal state, relative declines can be seen in Lower Austria (-3.9 percent), Tyrol (-3.2 percent), Burgenland (-1.3 percent), Vienna (-0.7 percent) and Carinthia (-0.3 ). The number of unemployed rose in Salzburg (+2.9 percent), Styria (+2.3 percent), Upper Austria (+1.2 percent) and Vorarlberg (+0.4 percent).
According to the AMS data, not only the number of unemployed people in Austria but also the number of immediately available vacancies has gone down. Compared to the previous year, vacancies fell by 11,213 or 9.1 percent.
Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) was pleased with the development. “Against the background that the economy was on the upswing a year ago after the corona-related restrictions, the current labor market situation is positive,” he was quoted as saying in a broadcast. The current situation is evidence that the labor market is still in very good shape despite the flattening of the economy.
The Chamber of Labour, the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Industrialists, on the other hand, took the current figures as an opportunity to demand further measures for the labor market. While the AK is pushing for a tightening of childcare or public transport, the ÖGB sees the improvement of qualification measures as a main lever. The IV, in turn, calls for additional incentives to get people into employment.
Despite the expected setback in the near future, the prospects are not really bleak. The economic experts from the Economic Research Institute (Wifo) and the Institute for Higher Studies (IHS) expect stable development on the labor market for the year as a whole. Wifo expects the national unemployment rate to rise by 0.1 percentage points to 6.4 percent, while the IHS expects it to move sideways, as can be seen from its most recently published economic forecast.
