VIENNA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Unemployment in Austria sank 4.1 percent year-over-year in August to a total of 330,691 unemployed persons, the Public Employment Service (AMS) said Monday.
This put the total unemployment rate as calculated by Austria's own criteria at 6.7 percent. The positive result comes despite a weakening economy, the AMS said, though the total drop comes in lower than the 8 percent seen in August 2018.
Youth unemployment was down a notable 7.6 percent for the month, while Austrian nationals saw their jobless numbers drop 4.6 percent, as opposed to foreign nationals who saw a marginal unemployment increase of 0.3 percent.
The long-term unemployed, defined as being out of work for a year or more, saw a modest 2.8 percent decrease in their jobless numbers, while unemployment increases were seen for people aged 50 and over (up 1.2 percent), people with health issues (up 3.6 percent), and people with disabilities (up 3.7 percent).
The AMS said it had 81,906 immediately available jobs to fill by the end of the month, an increase of 3.2 percent over August 2018.
Also pleasing to the AMS were the newest EUROSTAT figures for the month of July. Calculated by different criteria, they have the Austrian unemployment rate at 4.4 percent, putting it at ninth-lowest in the European Union.
Despite this, AMS head Johannes Kopf said the weakening economy will at some point end the long-standing trend towards declining jobless figures.
