Operational areas

Adapt your talent recruitment for Austria

Austria is home to a healthy economy, characterized by low unemployment and dominated by SMEs.There’s been a recent move towards a more service-oriented economy, as other industries like mining decline, making it possible to access all ranges of skilled labor. This article provides an introduction to recruiting and finding talent in the Austrian market.

The market at a glance

Size of workforce

4.5m

people

Employment rate

73.4%

Education rate

40.3%

Cost of labor

$50,868

English proficiency index (world)

#12/88

High proficiency

English proficiency index (Europe)

#8/27

High proficiency

Finding the right talent

The Austrian Employment Service (AMS, Arbeitsmarktservice) is a government institution that acts as a platform between employers and employees, and is a good place to start looking for talent. Popular job sites include www.jobpilot.at and www.derstandard.at/stellenmarkt. Some of the larger employment agencies include Manpower, Adecco and REX.

Things to keep in mind

Employees have a minimum entitlement to 25 days of paid annual leave in each year of work. In addition to that, there are 13 paid public holidays, making Austria the country offering the highest amount of paid leave in the EU after the Republic of Malta.

Although English is widely spoken, having a good knowledge of Austria’s national language, German, is important for success in the workplace.

Many jobs are actually located outside of Austria’s large cities in the tourism industry. Tourism accounts for more than 10% of the Austrian GDP, and tourism-related jobs are in high demand during both the summer and ski seasons.

Sources:

  1. Total 2017 Labour force
  2. % of working age population
  3. % of population (25-44 yrs old) with tertiary graduation rates
  4. Average wage
  5. English proficiency index
  6. Austria.info
  7. Wikipedia