33 million euro package for Vienna labour market

This year Vienna will be pumping an additional 33 million euros into the labour market. The aim is principally to support young people, apprentices, re-employment schemes and individuals on training leave.

300 million euros in AMS grants

“The Vienna labour market package” for 2009 was recently presented by Executive City Councillor of Finance, Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner and Federal Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection Rudolf Hundstorfer. Of the additional 33 million euros in this year’s package, a total of 10 million euros will be provided by the City of Vienna, the remaining 23 million euros by the Vienna AMS labour market service. The new package should benefit around 2,500 people. In 2009 the Austrian Federal Government will make nearly 300 million euros available in Vienna for direct AMS grants. In addition to its regular budget of over 58 million euros, this year the Vienna Employment Promotion Fund will receive at least a further 10 million euros from the City of Vienna for job assistance.

Brauner: Vienna labour market stable

“The ‘umbrellas’ are up to protect the Vienna labour market,” declared Executive City Councillor of Finance, Vice-Mayor Renate Brauner. “Although Vienna is also feeling the global economic slowdown, it was now necessary to take effective measures to stabilize the Vienna labour market. The development of the labour market in Vienna is stable at the present time, and there is no negative trend in women's unemployment either. The many labour market initiatives by the City of Vienna have also benefited women,” emphasized Brauner.

Youth package

More than half of the additional Vienna funding – some 5.5 million euros – has been earmarked for young people. In general the new measures should mainly benefit young people, as well as workers who have been given notice and individuals on training leave. The main concern is to increase the range of qualifications which the Vienna Employment Promotion Fund traditionally already offers. Employment Promotion Fund Director Fritz Meissl presented the individual measures together with Executive City Councillor of Finance Renate Brauner. For example, a “Youth Package” is designed to help increase the number of apprenticeships offered in conjunction with the AMS labour market service from its current level of 3,500 to 3,750. This training will enable young people who fail to secure apprenticeships with companies to obtain suitable qualifications nevertheless.

New opportunities for problem youth

“My Opportunity” is the title of another measure created to help young people attain educational qualifications who had previously failed to do so. 250 places will be set up for young unemployed persons between the ages of 18 and 25. The City of Vienna will make 2.7 million euros available to the Vienna Employment Promotion Fund for this purpose. There will also be additional assistance for the big “problem children” amongst young people on the Vienna labour market, especially for school dropouts. In close cooperation with various agencies such as the Social Welfare Office, schools and institutions, an attempt will be made to give these youngsters a future on the labour market again. The budget resources earmarked for this purpose total around 2.3 million euros.

Another goal is to boost re-employment schemes with an additional sum of nearly 3.5 million euros. In view of the fact that re-employment schemes are generally used by major industrial companies, 350 new scheme places will be designed to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. Overall the number of places with re-employment schemes will be massively increased from its present level of 300 to 1,000. In addition to small and medium-sized enterprises, this assistance will also be provided to financially weak or insolvent companies. In future financially weak firms will no longer be required to pay the full contribution.

Focus on training leave

There is also a new focus on training leave. This measure is aimed to support companies suffering a short-term decline in orders or temporarily in economic difficulties due to the economic crisis. The Vienna Employment Promotion Fund will pay 50 per cent of external training costs when such companies send their employees on further education and training courses. There is a limit set at 3,000 euros per employee or 100,000 euros per company. The City of Vienna will provide a million euros for this measure in the year 2009. The Vienna Employment Promotion Fund assumes that the average grant will be around 2,000 euros. The training leave measure will help to secure the jobs of 500 employees whilst at the same time improving their qualifications.

According to Director Meissl, this year the Vienna Employment Promotion Fund will provide assistance to more than 25,500 Viennese in the form of consulting, grants and various job measures.