Austrian Labour Market Is Facing Labour Shortages

Analysis of the Austrian labour market, conducted by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, has shown that each fifth vacancy can only be filled by workers hired from abroad due to the shortage of domestic labour.  Despite the growing unemployment in Austria, domestic companies are faced with difficulties in finding enough workers.  The companies which participated in the survey will be short of 148,000 workers in the next six months only, out of which number more than a half are craftsmen.  Even one third of this number cannot be provided from the domestic labour pool.  The analysis has shown that even now two thirds of companies with 20 or more employees cannot fill their vacancies.  One of the reasons is weak labour mobility in Austria which is why the north of the country employs more Germans than Austrians from the south of the country.