"Cuts"

Despite the economic crisis: AMS budget shrinks

Palmers is also in a huge crisis. An investor is urgently needed.(Bild: ROLAND SCHLAGER/APA/picturedesk.com)

In the wake of the insolvency of motorcycle manufacturer KTM, 520 employees have had to leave, lingerie manufacturer Palmers has registered redundancies with the AMS early warning system, 140 employees will lose their jobs at the end of the year due to the closure of the Panasonic plant in Enns - the wave of bad news is rolling through the local economy. Fatal: At the same time, the Public Employment Service has to tighten its belt.

An unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, 49,268 people without a job, plus 10,350 people in training - these are the figures presented by the Upper Austrian Public Employment Service on Monday. Two days later, the AMS presented its work program for 2025. The focus here is clearly on preventing youth unemployment and stabilizing long-term unemployment.

2.1 percent below the Austrian average
"Our goal is to offer unemployed people prospects from the very first day of their unemployment," emphasizes Iris Schmidt, Managing Director of the AMS Upper Austria, who can also pinpoint the poor development in figures. Employment in Upper Austria has fallen, the number of vacancies is also declining, while unemployment is rising, even though Upper Austria's unemployment rate of 4.9 percent in the previous year was still well below the Austrian average of 7.0 percent.

The Public Employment Service Upper Austria is starting the year with a transition budget of EUR 157.4 million. Compared to 2024, this is a decrease of EUR 3.5 million. "If you factor in the inflation rate and the rise in unemployment figures, these cuts are painful," says Schmidt. A future government will set new targets, she reckons: "However, we expect these to be funded accordingly."

"Government action more necessary than ever"
Daniel Mühlböck from ÖGB Upper Austria, a member of the AMS regional board of directors, expresses no sympathy for the federal government's cuts to labor market policy: "Government action is now more necessary than ever." "A lack of economic growth always leads to declining income for the state budget and thus to increasing pressure. For the AMS, this means making further improvements in terms of efficiency, innovation and flexibility," says Thomas Buchegger from the Federation of Austrian Industries Upper Austria.

The goal remains the same, namely to place a stronger focus on skills in the placement process. "We are virtually deconstructing the jobs and analyzing the skills and abilities required for them. This enables us to find the right placement and determine the need for the necessary qualifications," says Markus Litzlbauer, Deputy Managing Director of the Upper Austrian Public Employment Service. Interestingly, while the plastics and waste processing sectors were previously defined as test areas for this, this has now been extended to all sectors.