At the end of February 2025, 429,940 people were registered as unemployed or in training with the Austrian employment service (AMS). The Austrian unemployment rate is now 8.1%, compared with 7.6% a year ago. This is not “an easy start for a new federal government”, commented Johannes Kopf, co-president of the AMS, who presented the unemployment figures on the same day as the formation of the new government. Kopf expects the unemployment rate to continue to rise during the year. “It is all the more important that the new federal government has announced its intention to invest more in the labour market,” commented Helene Schuberth, director of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), welcoming the measures in the government programme.
As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.