Austria Unemployment Hits 6.9% in 40th Month of Increases
Austria’s unemployment rate rose to 6.9 percent in July, according to figures released by the Arbeitsmarktservice (AMS), the country’s public employment service, extending a streak of rising joblessness that has now continued for 40 consecutive months.
At the end of July, 364,200 people were registered as unemployed or participating in an AMS training program, an increase of 1.3 percent compared to the same month last year. The unemployment rate itself climbed 0.2 percentage points over the same period.
A familiar diagnosis, again
AMS board member Johannes Kopf offered a blunt assessment: after 40 months of rising unemployment, his analysis is, unfortunately, forced to repeat itself. He pointed to a combination of factors weighing on the labor market: too little international demand, elevated energy and unit labor costs, weak consumer spending, and insufficient investment, in short, too little economic growth overall.
The slowdown traces back to spring 2023, when unemployment began its extended climb after several years of improvement following the pandemic-era peak.
Job openings shrinking too
The number of immediately available positions registered with AMS fell 3 percent year-on-year to just under 80,000, meaning fewer opportunities are opening up even as more people search for work. Long-term joblessness is also becoming a larger share of the total: the number of people unemployed for at least a year rose nearly 13 percent to just over 102,000, now representing roughly a third of all registered unemployed.
Women affected more than men
The increase has not been evenly distributed. Female unemployment rose roughly 6 percent year-on-year, notably steeper than the 3.5 percent rise among men, a pattern that held across Austria’s states, including in Lower Austria, where the gap was even wider.
A sharp regional divide
Vienna posted the country’s highest unemployment rate by a wide margin, 11.3 percent, followed by Burgenland at 6.5 percent. Tyrol recorded the lowest rate nationally at 3.3 percent, and was the only state where unemployment did not rise compared to the previous year.
Skilled labor shortages persist despite rising joblessness
Even with unemployment climbing, Austria continues to face shortages in specific skilled professions. The Labour Ministry and AMS’s quarterly skills-shortage barometer identified electricians, auto mechanics, mechanical engineering technicians, bricklayers, and doctors among the professions facing the sharpest gaps in the second quarter of 2026, a mismatch between the jobs being lost and the skills employers say they can’t find.
A cautious note of optimism
Despite the headline numbers, Kopf pointed to early signs of a possible turning point, noting that labor markets eventually shift and some early indicators are becoming visible. Separately, incoming job postings at AMS actually rose 2.4 percent year-on-year in July, even as the total stock of open positions continues to shrink, a detail officials point to as a tentative signal rather than a confirmed trend reversal.
The weak labor market comes even as Austria’s inflation has been easing, a reminder that a cooling cost-of-living picture and a strained job market can move in different directions at the same time. Full, verified monthly data is published by the Arbeitsmarktservice, Austria’s official public employment service.
