Bleak job market

Finding a job becomes a Herculean task for young people

Rejection after rejection - young people are finding it increasingly difficult to find work(Bild: wararat2599, wararat2599)

There are 18.5 percent more unemployed people under the age of 24 in Lower Austria than there were twelve months ago. The economic slump is currently particularly noticeable in the Mostviertel region - where the number of unemployed people has risen by more than 20 percent in many regions.  

The number of unemployed is now also rising sharply in Lower Austria. At the beginning of the month, 50,633 people were looking for a job in the largest federal state. That is 7.6 percent more than a year ago. In addition, more than 9,000 people are currently attending training courses run by the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS).

School desk instead of workbench
Training and further education is now becoming increasingly important in the job search, confirms AMS boss Sandra Kern: "In the last three months, 26 percent more clients have used our training advice services than in the same period last year. And the number of training participants has risen by four percent."

The only ray of hope: Number of long-term unemployed in Lower Austria has been falling for 30 months in a row(Bild: APA-PictureDesk)

5000 more young people without a job
While older employees have apparently had better chances on the labor market recently, unemployment in this segment has also tipped back into positive territory - albeit only by 1.2 percent for the time being. However, Susanne Rosenkranz, the state councillor responsible, is seriously concerned about the increase in unemployed people up to the age of 24. Here, the increase compared to February 2022 is a whopping 18.5 percent - that's more than 5,000 people affected. The only ray of hope in the current AMS statistics: there are 4.8% fewer long-term unemployed than a year ago. This means that this figure has been falling for 30 months.

Mostviertel loses jobs
Compared to February last year, unemployment has only fallen slightly in the Krems and Zwettl regions. However, the highest increases were recorded in the districts of Waidhofen an der Ybbs (26.1 percent), Scheibbs (24.3 percent) and Amstetten (21.8 percent). The increase was also above the 10 percent mark in Mistelbach, Mödling and St. Pölten.