“The Vorarlberg job market is still proving extremely robust,” said Bernhard Bereuter, state manager for AMS, describing current developments at a news conference on Tuesday. “With currently 9,466 registered unemployed, we are still well below the pre-crisis level of 10,156 registered at the end of October 2019,” says Bereuter.
Rate below the Austrian average
Compared to the previous month, the number of unemployed increased by 681 people – albeit for seasonal reasons. Of the 1,059 people from the hotel industry who were registered, 67% have already received job offers for the winter season.
At 5.3%, the unemployment rate in Vorarlberg was below the Austrian average of 6.0%. Vienna continued to have the highest unemployment rate at 9.9%, while Upper Austria had the lowest rate at 3.5%.
Fewer long-term unemployed
The positive developments also meant that the number of long-term unemployed dropped again significantly, Bereuter continued, by around 100 people since the end of September to a total of 1,573 people. Since the beginning of the year, this number has even dropped by 970 people (-38.1 percent). The long-term unemployed are people who have been looking for work for more than twelve months.
Companies are urgently looking for workers
Most companies are still working at full capacity. AMS head Bereuter assumes that positive development will continue into November and December. “The high number of vacancies indicates that many companies are still looking for workers urgently”, says Bereuter. With 5,223 vacancies, the job offer increased by 320 in relation to the previous year (6.5%). There are almost twice as many open apprenticeships (404) as there are applicants for apprenticeships (216) in the apprenticeship market.
“Due to economic developments, however, we expect demand for personnel to decline in the coming months,” says Bereuter. Economic forecasts currently assume that there will be only 0.5% growth in Vorarlberg in the first quarter of 2023. And that would mean jobs would be lost again.
AMS statistics details
► 2,920 elderly people (over 50 years old) were registered as unemployed. This corresponded to a decrease of 163 (-5.3 percent), of which 139 (-8.2 percent) among men and 24 (-1.7 percent) among women.
► There were declines in office jobs (-85), commercial jobs (-68), cleaning jobs (-62) and technicians (-54). Notable increases were in tourism occupations (+126) and support occupations (+67)
► Currently, 1,999 people have a job offer. This corresponds to 21.1 percent of all registered unemployed. 67% or 1,059 people with career aspirations in the hotel and hospitality industry have had a job offer for the next few weeks.
► Across Austria, the number of registered unemployed fell to 249,314, which corresponds to a decrease of 20,200 people or -7.5 percent from the previous year.
► The number of participants in the training fell to 2,340 people (-4) compared to the previous year.
Registered unemployed and participants in training
► The number of registered unemployed and participants in training (total registered unemployed and participants in training) decreased by 289 to 11,806 people.
Immediately available jobs reported to AMS
► There was an increase in vacancies in commercial (+168), office (+152) and technical (+89) occupations. There were declines in tourism occupations (-159) and support occupations (-43).