Austria: bonus for employing local workers

Last week, the Austrian government set out plans for a new recruitment subsidy (Beschäftigungsbonus) for the hiring of local workers. This measure, which will be funded with 2 billion euros and is part of a wider push to reduce unemployment levels, involves halving the social security contributions companies pay, for a period of three years, for residents of Austria that they hire. The aim of the measure is to create up to 160,000 jobs. Employer groupings have welcomed the measure, but have warned that it could become a huge bureaucratic burden.
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The Austrian government has begun putting its new 36-page plan for job creation, which it presented at the end of January (see article n° 10047) after a final arbitration between the coalition parties, into practice. One of the plan’s flagship measures was adopted on Tuesday 21 February by the country’s council of ministers. The measure is a bonus paid for hiring local workers (Beschäftigungsbonus). The subsidy is geared towards fighting the rising level of unemployment in the country, which no

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