AK chief economist:

“Enormous untapped labor potential”

(Bild: Erwin Wodicka - stock.adobe.com)

Markus Marterbauer, Chief Economist at the Chamber of Labor, sees "enormous" untapped labor potential in Austria. According to the expert, the shortage of skilled workers could be tackled effectively by increasing the hours of part-time workers, training immigrants, people in low-paid jobs and temporary workers and mobilizing the "hidden reserve".

Publicly funded training opportunities should not only be available for the unemployed, but also for employees and bogus self-employed workers, said the AK economist. In his opinion, the Public Employment Service (AMS) or another institution to be created should also take care of the placement and qualification of employees. Employees from the low-wage sector could be qualified and then placed in industry or better-paid service jobs.

According to Statistics Austria, the available "hidden reserve" in Austria amounted to 96,400 people last year and the unavailable "hidden reserve" to 69,300. The "hidden reserve" is made up of non-employed people (neither employed nor unemployed) aged between 15 and 74 who are looking for work but are not available at short notice or people who could start at short notice but have not looked for work even though they would like to work.

I think labor shortages are great.

Arbeiterkammer-Chefökonom Markus Marterbauer

Companies must take needs into account
Marterbauer expects the demographic-related labor shortage to create "better jobs". "I think labor shortages are great." Companies need to "focus on the needs of their employees, for example in terms of working hours or pay". However, the current skills shortage is not comparable to the early 1970s, according to the economist. Back then, there were 0.4 unemployed people for every vacancy, whereas today there are four.

Criticism of the government's economic policy
The AK economist criticized the economic policy of the turquoise-green federal government. The "central cause" of the stagnating economic performance in Austria since the beginning of 2022 is inflation. Inflation in Austria has been on average 1.7 percent higher than in the eurozone over the past two years. Marterbauer criticized that the federal government had not "strategically and purposefully" combated inflation in energy, food and rents. High real wage increases will boost consumption this year and lead to an economic recovery. In contrast to some business representatives, the AK chief economist is "very optimistic" for Austria's industrial companies in both the short and long term. "Our industry is very strong." In contrast to Germany, domestic industry has been growing and investing significantly since 2015.