Austria's jobless rate increased in the final month of 2020, led by seasonal unemployment in the construction sector and lack of jobs in the tourism sector due to the lockdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic, the Austrian Public Employment Service/AMS said Monday.
The unemployment rate rose to 11.0 percent from 9.5 percent in November.
The number of unemployed was 459,682 persons, which was higher by 109,887 persons or 31.4 percent from the same month last year.
Employment shrunk by 53,000 persons annually to 3.72 million.
The AMS said around 521,000 persons were registered as unemployed or in training programs, which is 27.7 percent higher from the end of 2019.
The third lockdown to battle the Covid-19 more than doubled unemployment in hospitality and tourism compared to the previous year, AMS said. However, the tourism sector remained the front runner in saving jobs with almost 100,000 persons on short-time work, Johannes Kopf, head of the AMS, said.
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