Vienna – Unemployment in Austria continues to fall: 393,500 people are currently registered as unemployed with the AMS and 75,000 are in training courses. That is a decrease of 12,200 unemployed people compared to the previous week. The number of unemployed (without training) is below 400,000 for the first time, said Labor Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) on Tuesday at a press conference in the Federal Chancellery. Furthermore, there are around 480,000 advance registrations for short-time work, these numbers remain constant.

The labor market is currently divided into two parts, between the closed sectors such as gastronomy and hotel business and the industry, which is partially flourishing, said Kocher. He expects a further recovery if there is no new lockdown.

Economic development (GDP) in the first week of March was around 6 percent below the previous year’s figure. This means that the upward trend has continued, said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP). With 33.5 billion euros of corona aid promised or already paid out, Austria has supported the economy more than other countries.

Economics Minister Margarete Schramböck (ÖVP) announced a digital qualification offensive from Friday with 7.6 million euros, which will be made available to companies for the further training of their employees. (APA)