21.01.2022

Catch-up Needed in Contact-intensive Sectors

WIFO Research Brief on Employment 2021

A recent WIFO Research Brief by Julia Bock-Schappelwein and Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger on the employment situation in 2021 shows that not all sectors were able to benefit from the generally good development on the labour market.

The labour market situation was better than expected in spring 2021, when it was assumed that the pre-crisis level of employment would not be reached until 2022. In fact, the pre-crisis level was already exceeded on average in 2021.

Nevertheless, there is still a need to catch up in the contact-intensive sectors of accommodation and food service activities, transporting and storage, and here in particular in land and air transport, arts, entertainment and recreation, and personal services, but also in travel agencies, where the pre-crisis level has not yet been reached again.

For 2022, WIFO expects the labour market to continue to develop favourably, although uncertainty remains regarding the pandemic development.