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Closed hotels and ski cabins are causing an increase in unemployment in tourist regions. The trend continues.
The second lockdown in Austria left its mark on the labor market in November. Unemployment has risen by 25 percent compared to the previous year, in tourist-heavy federal states such as Salzburg, Tirol or Vorarlberg even by 30 to 45 percent. A total of 457,197 people were unemployed in November, 66,000 of them in training courses. The national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent compared to 7.4 percent the previous year.
However, Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher was pleasantly surprised on Tuesday: “The second blockade has a significantly less impact on the labor market than the first,” she said, proof that the government has managed to counter this with work. short-term crown and securing jobs and income.
The fact that the development after the mandatory bans in the catering, hotels, events and retail sectors was not as dramatic as in the spring is probably mainly due to the replacement of income and the ban on dismissal that the government has assigned . “It must be said frankly that unemployment should have risen significantly more. Without this aid it would have been more like the first lockdown,” said Johannes Kopf, Public Employment Service (AMS) directory at ORF “Mittagsjourna” l. “It’s pretty tragic as the numbers are, but it’s good that the countermeasures really work.”
Not only Kopf assumes that the numbers will continue to rise to half a million unemployed in the coming weeks. “I’m afraid unemployment will skyrocket again in December,” says Jacqueline Beyer, director of the Salzburg AMS. Currently, 20,845 people are registered as unemployed in the state of Salzburg, 40 percent more than in November 2019. 2103 people are in training courses, an eleven percent decrease related to the lockdown.
More than a third of the unemployed in Salzburg come from the hotel or restaurant sector. Under normal circumstances, that would not be exceptional because November is always the month with the most seasonal unemployment, stresses Beyer. 7,860 unemployed waiters, housemaids and company had never existed in November. Only when it is clear when winter operations in the mountains will begin again will the situation improve. There are many people with work commitments who are shattered by the longer closing of hotels, says the head of AMS.
At the moment, your employees are very busy ensuring timely payment of unemployment and part-time benefits and processing requests for part-time hiring. According to Beyer, Corona’s labor offensive will take effect from January with the aim of immediately offering the newly unemployed a job or orientation orientation. Above all, as before the crisis, the many unemployed with compulsory education should be motivated to complete adult learning.
The number of long-term unemployed has increased dramatically in Salzburg, but also throughout Austria. However, this generally applies: the average reserve period in the AMS has increased to 237 days, which is 36 percent higher than a year ago. With additional subsidies, such as a restart bonus for new part-time jobs, Minister Aschbacher wants to initiate a faster re-employment of job seekers.
Non-Austrians were again hit hardest by the job loss in November. According to the AMS, the number of unemployed foreigners increased by 30 percent, compared to a 22 percent increase among residents.
The great lifeline and, at the same time, the great unknown in the labor market is part-time work. Currently, more than 276,000 people do part-time work, 57,000 more than last week. For comparison: in May, 1.3 million people were working short-time in the first peak of the crisis. According to Kopf, “there is still a lot in the pipeline” and several requests have been sent to the companies for review. Officially closed companies can also bring back employees who have already been laid off until the end of the lockdown and sign up for a reduced-time job, with zero hours and up to 90 percent of salary. So far, the government has disbursed around 5.2 billion euros in salary support and has approved 8.7 billion euros; the budget is 12,000 million euros. Corona’s part-time work is limited to the end of March 2021. In February, the government and social partners discussed a possible extension.
Countries like Germany that are not dependent on tourism are feeling the crown’s restrictions less strongly. According to the Federal Employment Agency, unemployment fell in November compared to October despite the Lockdown Light. 2.69 million people were unemployed, 519,000 more than in November last year.
