Structural transformation and changes in the production system result in changes of the occupational profiles and qualifications demanded by the labour market. However, adjusting to the new requirements of the labour market takes time. Against this background, medium- to long-term forecasts of...

The availability of an adequate pool of suitable labour is a key location factor for the labour-intensive hotel and restaurant business. Yet, in spite of high unemployment (jobless rate: 17.3 percent) and schemes to attract seasonal workers from abroad, the sector still encounters considerable...

WIFO regularly produces employment forecasts, broken down by occupations, sectors and gender, for use as a basis for medium-term projections of future skills requirements. The current figures cover the period from 2010 to 2016 and offer an ample set of forecasts for 38 sectors and 57...

Austria's GDP grew by just 0.3 percent in 2014, making for a sluggish economy for the third year in a row. Causes for the sluggishness were not just continued investment reticence on the part of businesses and muted expenditure on the part of private households but also the lack of any strong...

In the industrialised federal state of Upper Austria structural change will continue to progress in the coming years. The importance of many fields in the service sector is growing, while in the manufacturing sector employment losses are predicted. In absolute terms the number of dependent...

Compared to eight other European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden, UK), Austria's labour market performance is better than average. In 2008, a higher-than-average share of the working-age population (15 to 64 years) had jobs and the share of the...

An analysis of the retirement age and the labour force exit age (age at which pensioners quit their last job) of men shows that men in the building and construction industry are granted disability pensions more frequently than in the whole economy (56 versus 39 percent). In the economy as a...

WIFO analysed key tools of labour market promotion programmes, using microeconometric methods, for their effects on the subsequent working life of beneficiaries. All measures thus analysed were found to have a positive effect on the labour force participation rate. Nevertheless, methods are not...

Since Austria has joined the EU in 1995 and participated in programmes of the European Social Fund (ESF), the Austrian Public Employment Service AMS has been organising measures to promote further education and training at enterprise level. Based on experience acquired in the first...

One pillar of the National Action Plan for Employment (NAP) is its focus on active labour market measures, especially with regard to the long-term unemployed. Within the framework of Guideline 2, "New start for long-term unemployed adults", activities were introduced to prevent long-term...