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There was no shortage of prominent participants at yesterday’s labor summit in Vienna. Minister Rudolf Anschober (Greens) and Ministers Christine Aschbacher (Labor) and Margarete Schramböck (Economy) were there, as were WKO President Harald Mahrer, AK Head Renate Anderl and ÖGB President Wolfgang Katzian. The improvement of the situation in the national labor market was discussed. However, there were no concrete resolutions.
In Austria there are 404,000 unemployed people, 77,500 more than the previous year. At the peak of the crisis in mid-April there were 588,000 unemployed. The number of short-time employees has gone from 1.3 million to 389,000. Corona’s short-lived working models have cost the state 4.7 billion euros so far.
Participants at yesterday’s summit agreed that the situation in the labor market will not be easier in the fall and winter. “The unemployment light is red,” AK chief Anderl said to Anschober. He stressed that everything possible must be done so that “the crisis in the labor market does not turn into a social crisis.”
The question of working hours
The main problem between the social partners is working hours. The union backed his call to reduce working hours. One should discuss “differences in regions and industries,” Anderl said. But shorter working hours are better than even more unemployed. For Mahrer, the head of the WKO, the reduction of working hours is an “instrument of the 60s and 70s”. For companies affected by Corona, this would be “an even greater burden,” Mahrer said. It is driving greater mobility of the workforce and company-related skills.
Ministers Aschbacher and Schramböck pin their hopes on the Corona work foundation, which is endowed with up to 700 million euros. It is about offering qualification measures for around 100,000 people by 2022. There is a great demand for workers in care, digitization and renewable energy. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen stressed that the labor market situation “requires our full attention.”
