Work: Austria tests utopia of zero unemployment – 7/5/2023 – Market

After spending years at home raising two children, electrical systems technician Sarah Sklenicka, 37, faced a major challenge in returning to the job market.

But this woman is now ready for anything, thanks to an experimental plan in Austria that claims to be a breakthrough in fighting long-term unemployment.

The town of Gramatneusiedl, near Vienna, has zero unemployment after securing jobs for its 129 long-term unemployed.

The project shows that it is possible to eradicate this persistent problem at the community level, said economist Oliver Pickek of the Momentum Institute in Vienna.

“It is possible to give work to anyone who wants to,” he told AFP.

The MAGMA pilot project provides training in carpentry, gardening, sewing and other trades required in local businesses, at minimum wages for those who have not worked for more than a year.

Before starting, they receive eight weeks of coaching to identify their strengths and goals. Many report that the project has helped them regain their self-confidence.

guaranteed job

“I feel more confident about applying somewhere. I feel like I can get a job outside of design,” said Sklenicka, who last year worked in furniture manufacturing and repair.

According to the organizers, all the unemployed in the city accepted the offer of training, except for some for health reasons.

Unemployment in Austria is 4.6%, below the EU average. The country has a shortage of jobs in many sectors, while part of the population is marginalized.

Gramatneusiedl’s job market is typical for the state of Lower Austria, so it was ideal as a testbed for the employment service.

The project’s great challenge was “what to do with certain people who cannot be integrated into the primary job market?”, explained Sandra Kern, deputy director of the service.

The city of 4,000 was also the site of a groundbreaking 1933 study of mass unemployment during the Great Depression.

It remains to be seen whether the four-year MAGMA project will be scaled up or applied more widely, Kern said. The project costs less than 30,000 euros per person per year, an amount comparable to unemployment insurance.

A study of the Oxford University project noted “strong positive impacts […] on the economic and non-economic well-being of the participants”.

fresh start

Yasemin Yaman, 38, fell into depression and suffered from panic attacks after failing to find a job after having children. She now works 30 hours a week on the project doing carpentry and sewing.

“I was very lonely even during the day. I felt something was wrong,” the mother of three told AFP. Now she says she feels “strong to start over”.

Like Robert Leisser, 37, more than 30% of project participants found permanent employment in the local timber industry.

“I got active, I made plans for the future again” after spending two years on the project, he said, who struggled with drug addiction in the past.

The contacts he made through MAGMA helped him land his current job, he added.