02. 07. 10. - 12:00

Fewer part-time contracts as crisis fades

The number of people in part-time schemes has declined strongly, new figures show.

Austrian Labour Market Service (AMS) boss Johannes Kopf said today (Fri) 8,313 workers currently work part-time in Austrian factories, stressing that more than 57,000 had been forced into part-time in April 2009.

Kopf explained the Austrian industry struggled most at that time as the global economic downturn slashed the number and value of orders. He explained firms decided to introduce the part-time schemes instead of laying off employees.

Social Democratic (SPÖ) Labour Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer has vigorously defended the state’s decision to subsidise companies which put some of their employees into the part-time schemes.

Kopf praised the agreement between the ministry and the AMS a success since the unemployment rate in the Austrian industrial sector is in decline.

Three in four part-time workers are employed at firms in Upper Austria, Styria and Lower Austria. These provinces have a strong industrial sector and their economic state strongly depends on the state these firms are in.

Hundstorfer warned yesterday the crisis was not over yet – despite a stark decrease of unemployment figures across the country.

Official statistics show that the number of people out of work shrank by 7.3 per cent last month compared to June 2009 to 212,753.

Styria had the strongest year on year decline in jobless rates among Austria’s nine provinces with a 16.9 per cent improvement last month followed by Salzburg (minus 16.4 per cent). The situation in Vienna meanwhile remains tense as a meagre 0.8 per cent year on year decline was registered in the city.

"The crisis is not over yet. These figures must not be regarded as a signal for an ‘effective’ recovery," Hundstorfer said.

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