Austria has the second-highest part-time employment rate in the EU. The labour force participation of older people is below the EU average.
Austria’s labour market is confronted with several structural challenges: The population is growing, especially among the over-65s, while the number of people in employment is stagnating. At the same time, the labour force participation of older people in Austria remains below the EU average. Austria has the second-highest part-time employment rate in the EU after the Netherlands.
While Austria’s labour market is relatively stable in the short term despite the weakening economy, it faces major structural problems in the longer term. According to forecasts by Statistics Austria, Austria’s population will grow to over ten million by 2080 – although this growth will mainly be among the over-65s.
Number of job vacancies at a high level
Although the number of unemployed people has risen by 19,700 to 240,900 in 2023 compared to the previous year. The number of people in employment has also increased by 40,400 to just over 4.5 million, reported Director General of Statistics Tobias Thomas.
Unfilled Jobs
Nevertheless, many jobs could not be filled. Although the number of vacancies fell, they remained at a high level with an annual average of 206,400. “Due to demographic change, the labour shortage is likely to become even more acute in the future,” says Thomas.
Few older people want to work
Older people are often cited as a possible reservoir for overcoming the shortage of workers or skilled workers. However, only 76,500 of the currently inactive people aged between 55 and 74 would want to return to work, which is only 5.6 percent. Even in the 55 to 59 age group, this figure is not even one in four.
When it comes to part-time employment, Austrians fall even further outside the EU framework: At 30.5 percent, the part-time rate here is the second highest after the Netherlands (43.4 percent).
This is primarily a female phenomenon. In 2023, more than one million women were working part-time, a good three times as many as men. From the age of 35, the majority of women work part-time. One of the main reasons for this is childcare. Every second child has childcare that does not allow them to work full-time.
Translated from the German
Source: Der Standard
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