Whether in restaurants, supermarket chains, bakeries or hotels – signs with the inscription: “Employees wanted” can be seen everywhere. The need for workers is great.
Chamber of Commerce President In March of this year, Mahrer also warned of a possible gap of 363,000 missing workers by 2040. According to his forecast, there might be a shortage of 53,000 employees in retail alone by then.
For a short breathe easy are now concerned by the results of a survey by Statistics Austria. As a result, the number of employment relationships 2022 in trade by 1.6 percent and in the service sector by 6.6 percent. So is there finally relaxation in sight?
“No,” says Monika Köppl-Turyna, director of the economic research institute EcoAustriapremature hopes: “If you look at the development of vacancies, for example the figures from the Economic Association, there were 40,000 vacancies in trade, logistics and transport in March 2023.
Although that is six percent less than in December, it is still 15 percent more vacancies than at the same time last year. So it is relaxation on a very high level.”
The slight increase in the number of employees is due to two reasons, explains Köppl-Turyna: “After the corona lockdowns, the economy took off once more and the wage agreements were very good, which must have motivated some people.”
In fact, they increased gross wages compared to the previous year by 6.5 percent in trade and by 11.9 percent in the service sector. “The higher the increases, the more people will choose to take jobs in these fields. The increase in the service industry is above the inflation rate, there is actually an increase in real wages. This is a good argument for recruiting new workers,” confirms Köppl-Turyna.
But what if workforce simply missing? The economist puts the dilemma in a nutshell: “In absolute terms, we have very low unemployment. That means there aren’t all that many free forces available. If so, then we must also access workers who are not active in the labor market: these are often older people or women with children.”
Of course, the latter can only close the gap under one condition: “Without flexible childcare with sensible opening times, however, it would be difficult to fully integrate women into the labor market,” Köppl-Turyna puts his finger into a wound.
After all, the development of a corresponding infrastructure cannot be created in a few months. For the time being, the situation remains tense.
