In Austria, the economic recovery after the financial crisis was accompanied by a reduction in unit labour costs in the manufacturing of goods in 2011. Although this decline only partly compensated for the rise in unit labour costs taking place in 2008 and 2009, unit labour cost development has generally taken a more favourable course in Austria since the start of the financial crisis than in the weighted average of its trading partners. However, the cost-determined competitiveness of the German export economy has developed somewhat more positively than is apparent in the unit labour cost data for the field "manufacturing of goods".