Long-term unemployment in Austria is on the rise again, as reported by Kurier. At the end of March, approximately 80,000 people had been looking for work for over a year. The share of long-term unemployed currently stands at 28 percent of total unemployment and has doubled over the past 15 years. Older people and individuals with health limitations are particularly affected.
Reintegrating this group into the labor market is a major challenge. An effective solution seems to be a job guarantee, as indicated by a study from the Institute of Sociology at the University of Vienna.
The accompanying study, “Marienthal.reversed,” examined the Marienthal model project by the AMS Lower Austria. Here, 112 long-term unemployed individuals were provided with subsidized employment for three years in the community, for example, in green space maintenance, office work, or craftsmanship. The results of the project are largely positive. Previously, the University of Oxford arrived at similar conclusions.
Subsidized employment is more meaningful than temporary transitional jobs, which are often limited to six months. Although the costs for long-term measures are higher, funds from EU sources can be utilized, and “every additional euro increases purchasing power, which then flows back as value-added tax.”
The AMS Vienna allocated a budget of 7.4 million euros for the three-and-a-half-year measure.
