An all-time high number of job vacancies were reported in Austria between July and September this year. 

According to findings published by Statistics Austria, the number of vacancies increased 34.3% year-on-year in the third quarter to reach a total of 218,100, the highest since tracking started back in 2009.

In addition, the statistics agency said job vacancies were up 70.0% compared to the third quarter of 2019 before the pandemic broke out.

“The upswing on the domestic labour market has been uninterrupted for a year and has not yet been affected by the economic consequences of the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine,” according to Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

That said, Thomas went on to say that the country’s labour market is facing a rising shortage of specialists and workers.

Austria’s job vacancy rate stood at 5.0%, around two percentage points over the pre-pandemic level. This represents the share of vacancies in all available roles and is a sign of shortages within Austria’s labour market. During the time period, there were 56,000 vacancies within the manufacturing sector, 130,900 in the service sector and 31,200 in the public sector.

In addition, the number of people employed in the country (aged 15 years and above) was almost 4.5 million during the third quarter, representing a 2.1% rise, or 91,300 compared to the same three months last year.

Furthermore, Statistics Austria stated that the number of unemployed people in the country continued to decline between July and September, falling by 9.5% year-on-year to 221,600.