Austria’s labour market has changed sharply over the past two decades, with far more people in work than in 2005 but only a small rise in the total number of hours worked.
According to new Statistics Austria figures, around 4.5 million people were employed in Austria in 2025, up by 752,600 from 20 years earlier. That was a rise of 20.1 percent, well above population growth of 11.5 percent over the same period.
But the total volume of work barely moved. Statistics Austria said total hours worked rose by just 2.1 percent between 2005 and 2025, reaching 6.89 billion hours last year.
Who drove the rise in employment?
Women were one of the biggest drivers of employment growth. Their employment rate reached 71.0 percent in 2025, up 9.9 percentage points from 2005. For men, the employment rate rose by 3.9 percentage points over the same period to 77.7 percent.
Older workers also made up a much bigger share of the workforce. The employment rate for people aged 55 to 64 more than doubled, from 29.9 percent in 2005 to 60.9 percent in 2025. Statistics Austria linked that to demographic change, higher demand for older workers and tighter rules on pension access and early retirement. Even so, Austria still ranked only 21st out of 27 EU countries in 2024 on that measure.
The role of foreign nationals also grew. Their share among all employed people more than doubled over the 20-year period, rising from 9.5 percent to 21.2 percent. In absolute terms, the number of non-Austrian nationals in work climbed from 355,300 to 953,800.
The employment rate rose by around eight percentage points both for Austrian citizens and for non-Austrian citizens, reaching 76.2 percent and 68.3 percent respectively.
More jobs, fewer hours per person
Despite the overall rise in employment, people in Austria were on average working fewer hours.
The average number of hours actually worked per week fell from 34.8 in 2005 to 29.4 in 2025, a drop of 5.3 hours. For men, average weekly hours fell from 38.8 to 32.7. For women, they declined from 29.7 to 25.7.
One major reason was the expansion of part-time work. In 2025, 31.0 percent of all employed people worked part time, up from 21.3 percent in 2005. Among women, the part-time rate rose from 39.5 percent to 49.8 percent. Among men, it more than doubled from 6.2 percent to 14.0 percent.
Statistics Austria said this reflected a mix of factors, including the rise in women’s employment, the right to parental part-time work introduced in 2004, limited childcare options, changing preferences and the growth of sectors where part-time work is more common.
Overtime also fell sharply. The volume of overtime and extra hours dropped from 354 million hours in 2005 to 170.1 million in 2025.
Most workers did not want to change their hours. In 2025, 78.9 percent said they wanted to keep their usual working time unchanged. Around 650,300 people, or 14.5 percent, said they would prefer to work fewer hours even if that meant earning less. Only 301,200 people, or 6.7 percent, said they wanted to work more.
Services kept growing
The figures also showed Austria’s long-running shift towards a more service-based economy. In 2005, 67.2 percent of all employed people worked in services. By 2025, that had risen to 73.1 percent.
Employment grew especially strongly in health and social services, education, professional services and information and communication. By contrast, the share of employment in industry and manufacturing fell from 27.6 percent to 24.1 percent, while agriculture and forestry shrank from 5.3 percent to 2.8 percent.
A separate Statistics Austria analysis highlighted ongoing difficulties for some younger people entering or staying connected to the labour market. It found that 121,930 people aged 15 to 24 in Austria were neither in employment nor in education or training in 2023.
That meant 12.9 percent of people in that age group were classed as NEETs (not in employment, education or training). The share was only slightly above the 2022 level of 12.8 percent.
Still, the office also found that around six in ten NEETs who stayed in Austria were back in education, employment or registered with the Public Employment Service, known as the AMS, within two years.
For foreigners looking for work in Austria, the figures suggest that the biggest opportunities are likely to remain in service sectors such as healthcare, education, IT and other professional services, while part-time work continues to play a much bigger role than in many other countries.
They also show how job prospects vary sharply by region: Vienna tends to have higher unemployment, while labour shortages are often more acute in several western provinces.
That means where you look for work, and whether you are seeking full-time or part-time hours, can matter almost as much as the sector itself.
Key vocabulary
Arbeitsmarkt – labour market
Teilzeit – part-time work
Überstunden – overtime
Migrationshintergrund – migration background
Pflichtschule – compulsory schooling
AMS – Austria’s Public Employment Service
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