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Austrian jobless rate lowest in EU once more

Austria is the European Union�s (EU) unemployment rate star pupil for a second time in two months.

EU officials announced today (Tues) Austria had the lowest jobless rate (3.8 per cent) among the EU�s 27 member states.

They announced Austria�s unemployment rate edged down by 0.1 per cent from June to July, adding that Austria was just one of three EU members which managed a year on year improvement. Austria�s jobless rate shrank from 5.1 per cent in July 2009 to 3.8 per cent in the same month this year.

The Netherlands have the second-lowest unemployment rate in the EU with 4.4 per cent, while Spain (20.3 per cent) and Latvia (20.1 per cent) did worst last month.

The Eurozone average remained stable at 10 per cent, while the EU-27 had an average 9.6 per cent of people out of work. The term Eurozone describes the 16 EU countries which have the Euro as their currency.

Eurostat, the European Commission�s (EC) statistics agency said an overall 23 million people living in the EU had no job at the moment, of which 15.8 million were citizens of Eurozone countries.

It also announced that Spain�s jobless rate for people aged 25 and younger was the highest in the EU with 41.5 per cent, while the Netherlands did best with 8.1 per cent (Austria: 9.1 per cent).

These findings come just days after two leading economic experts warned of a possible rise in the Austrian jobless rate later this year.

Christoph Leitl, president of the Federal Economy Chamber (WKO), and Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) boss Karl Aiginger warned up to 400,000 Austrians could be out of work this winter. This figure would resemble the number of unemployed people in 2009 when the country was struggling to recover from the effects of the global recession. Around 273,000 people living in Austria are currently out of work, according to the Labour Market Service (AMS).

Leitl and Aiginger explained debt-ridden towns and communities had been forced to reduce their infrastructure investments and building orders � a development set to lead to a significant increase in the number of unemployed construction workers and engineers.

People�s Party (�VP) Finance Minister Josef Pr�ll said earlier this year he wanted Austria�s communities to spend an overall 700 million Euros less in 2010 to help the federal government reducing the state debt from the current 200 billion Euros.

Community Union representatives have however warned the country�s towns and cities were not in the position to help considering their difficult financial state.

Pr�ll further announced plans to spend 1.7 billion Euros less at the federal level next year while tax takings will soar by 1.7 billion Euros � but remained tight-lipped which tax increases were ahead.

The Austrian budget deficit was 3.5 per cent in 2009 when the coalition of Social Democrats (SP�) and �VP poured around six billion Euros into the country�s leading banks to shield them from the effects of the crisis.

Austrian Times

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