Early Monitoring of the Sustainable and Inclusive Development Goals in Austria – Update 2025

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations aim for global sustainable development encompassing economic, ecological and social aspects. This Research Brief provides an update on the early monitoring of SDG 8 for Austria. Based on the annual SDG monitoring by Eurostat and taking into account the current development in Austria on the basis of the WIFO Economic Outlook and Nowcasts, an early assessment of target achievement for the year 2025 is made. The development continues to be shaped by weak economic dynamics. However, the update uses now 2020 as the base year – a year strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – which improves the assessment of the development of real GDP per capita and youth unemployment. While the medium-term trends for fatal accidents at work and the in work at-risk-of-poverty rate have deteriorated, the current evaluation remains positive regarding the employment rate, long-term unemployment, and raw material consumption, whereas the investment ratio is assessed negatively.