Background information

The COVID-19 pandemic had large effects on the Austrian economy and labour market, with increased unemployment rates. In order to (re-)qualify and train unemployed persons, a large "COVID-19 job offensive" was implemented by the Austrian federal government in fall 2020. The goal of this programme is to provide sustainable employment prospects and to support future-oriented economic development.

Content of measure

The COVID-19 job offensive consists of a bundle of funding instruments to pursue educational and training measures. The options are custom-tailored to a wide variety of qualification requirements. The focus of the programme lies in training regarding digitalisation (IT) and (long-term) care.

The following groups are targeted by the initiative:

• unemployed people who want to use the current situation for a professional reorientation or further training
• unemployed people whose chances of being re-employed can be significantly increased through qualification
• unemployed young adults without a qualification who should receive special support (regarding the youth/training guarantee up to the age of 25)
• women or people returning to work after family-related career breaks
• persons with disabilities, people with language-related employment problems and people with complex placement limitations
• employees, including those on short-time work, whose jobs are to be safeguarded through job-preserving qualifications

The aims of the programme are as follows:

• provision of professional advice and support for suitable educational and career planning, taking into account the different individual requirements
• promotion of practical training and further education activities close to the labour market in future-oriented fields of qualification (digitalisation, MINT, internationalisation, environment, care, education and social affairs)
• catching up on apprenticeship qualifications (i.e. finishing apprenticeships which had been interrupted)
• increase in placement and employment opportunities
• coverage of the existing and future labour demand

Participants in the programme who complete a qualification measure or (re-)training lasting longer than four months receive an education bonus ( see measure 1641 in the COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch database ) of €180 per month in addition to their regular unemployment benefits.

The job offensive is processed by the Public Employment Service (AMS) and implemented by the regional AMS offices. The federal states (i.e. the regional offices) can thus determine the design of the measures and included training programmes, as needed by the regional labour markets.

In total, around €700 million have been earmarked for this programme by the federal government for 2020-2022 (trainings started 31 December 2021). Those are additional funds of which €485 million are for qualification, €102 million for advisory facilities, €58 million for the qualification bonus and €55 million for employment promotion in socio-economic companies and non-profit employment projects. The regular funding budget of the Public Employment Service (AMS) for 2021 remains at €1.2 billion.

Around 100,000 beneficiaries can thus be financed.

Use of measure

At the end of September 2021, 60,000 people have been qualified within the framework of this programme and 30,000 have found a new job, according to the labour minister Mr Kocher.

As of mid-December, 185,000 people received training and further education within the framework of the COVID-19 Job Offensive. Almost 100,000 of them have already completed the training in 2021, thus having reached the ministry's target for 2021, according to the labour minister. The focus of the education and training measures was on digitalisation and natural sciences, health professions and care, as well as in the areas of environment and sustainability.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Unemployed	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Public employment service	National funds Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

The social partners hold seats in the Public Employment Service's supervisory board and were thus to some degree involved in the design and implementation of the measure, but the extent is unknown.

Views and reactions

Unknown.

Sources

• 12 November 2020: Corona job offensive starts (www.sn.at)
• 28 September 2021: Qualified workers (www.wienerzeitung.at)
• 13 October 2021: Corona job offensive (www.bma.gv.at)
• 13 October 2021: Corona job offensive AMS information (www.ams.at)
• 14 December 2021: Lockdown effect on unemployment low (apa.at)