Daily NewsView All News
According to the Austrian Public Employment Service (AMS), around 260,000 people were recorded as registered unemployed in 2009 (annual average), 154,000 of whom were men and 107,000 were women. The national unemployment rate was 7.2% (6.3% among women and 7.9% among men). At 10.2%, the unemployment rate among non-Austrian citizens was significantly higher than the average.
An analysis of the trend in unemployment since 1995 reveals a breakdown into four phases. A sharp rise from 1995 to 1996 from 216,000 to 231,000 unemployed was followed by two years with lesser increases. The labour market rallied from 1999 to 2001. The year 2000 saw the lowest number of unemployed persons (194,000) since 1995. From 2001 to 2002, there was a rise of around 30,000, resulting in a 2002 annual average of 232 000 unemployed.
Leading up to 2005, the number of unemployed rose less steeply and amounted to 253,000 unemployed in the year 2005. From 2006 to 2008 there was a significant decrease in unemployment. Due to the economic crisis the number of unemployed persons rose strongly in the year 2009, reaching its highest value, 260,000, in that year. An examination of the period as a whole reveals an identical trend among women and men.
The unemployment rate developed similarly to the number of unemployed. The lowest rate was 5.8%, which was recorded in 2000, as was the lowest number of unemployed persons; the highest rate, in 2005, was 7.3%. Rates almost equally as high were also recorded in the years 1996 to 1998 (7.0% to 7.2%) and 2002 to 2004 (6.9% to 7.1%).
From 2006 to 2008 the unemployment rate decreased (6.8% to 5.8%). In the year 2009 the unemployment rate rose to 7.2%. From 1995 to 2000, the unemployment rate among women was higher than that among men, and vice versa from 2001 to 2009. Men and women experienced parallel rises and falls.