With an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent, the AMS balances the year 2021, in the pre-Corona year 2019 the rate was 4.6 percent. Growth picked up significantly in autumn 2021, but was then wiped out by another lockdown.

Salzburg – Economic Chamber President Peter Buchmüller calls in this context “contrary to the line of the Federal Government, a higher immigration of qualified workers from abroad, which was completely blocked under the Kurz government” and a lower possibility of “marginal employment”, which would deter some to return to a full-time job.

Jaqueline Beyer from the AMS came up with an only slightly higher unemployment rate compared to the last year before Corona and a surprise: “In the midst of the biggest crisis in decades, many companies are desperately looking for workers, the unemployment figures have fallen sharply compared to 2020”. . Beyer expects the unemployment rate to return to pre-crisis levels by the end of this year.

On average, around 15,000 men and women were registered as unemployed in 2021, around 20 percent more than before Corona. The biggest problem child are still the long-term unemployed, i.e. people who cannot be placed for more than a year. “A third of the long-term unemployed are older than 50, but many companies are looking for the ideal image ‘under 30, still a lot of experience, Austrian and healthy’, but only seven percent of our customers match this profile,” says Beyer.

Only compulsory school leaving certificate as a problem

Another disadvantage when it comes to placement are unemployed people who only have a compulsory school certificate, “that’s around 2000 people under 30”, these are always the first to be affected by unemployment in a crisis and they are usually also unemployed the longest.

Economy: “More workers from abroad”

The President of the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce, Peter Buchmüller, points to a general shortage of skilled workers, “i.e. not just a shortage of skilled workers”, and makes two demands in this context. Firstly, the possibility of so-called ‘marginal employment’ should be limited to three to six months, “so far it has been the case that someone very quickly gets used to unemployment benefits or emergency assistance and the permitted additional income and then no longer wants to take on a real full-time job”. , according to Buchmuller. He also calls for ‘qualified immigration’, “I know that doesn’t conform with the federal government, but we need workers from third countries, they don’t even have to be qualified specialists”.

The necessary red-white-red card is still too difficult to obtain, the previous Kurz government slowed down a lot here, and he noticed a certain rethinking in the new government. Buchmüller does not mean the previous seasonal workers, who are mainly allowed to come into the catering trade for a few months, but real immigrants. “As sad as that sounds, if the Bosnian war hadn’t happened and tens of thousands of people had fled to us, many companies would have had to close long ago.” Refugees and asylum seekers should also be allowed to be integrated more quickly into the labor market, said Buchmüller.

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