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The
unemployment rate at the end of November rose to 9.5% from 7.4%
a year earlier. The number of job-seekers - those registered as
unemployed or in training - rose by a quarter year-on-year to
457,197.
That was an increase of roughly 33,000 from a month earlier,
Aschbacher told a news conference, of which about 20,000 were
"due to the crisis" and around 13,000 were the result of
seasonal effects.
"The effects of the pandemic but also the global economic crisis
that it caused are leaving deep marks on the job market,"
Aschbacher said, adding that public health measures were
currently the top priority.
The sector in which joblessness increased the most year-on-year
was hospitality, with a 43% jump, followed by transport and
warehousing, in which it rose 41%, official data showed.
Faced with rapidly accelerating infections, Austria's
conservative-led government introduced a second lockdown on Nov.
17 that will expire on Monday. What will then reopen and in what
order is unclear, though the government has said schools and
shops will be the first priority.
The number of people registered for the national layoff
prevention scheme, under which employers only pay staff for
hours actually worked and the government tops up the difference
to 80%-90% of their salary, also rose to 276,370 at the end of
November, an increase of about 57,500 from a week earlier.
The number of people registered for the so-called "kurzarbeit"
scheme is expected to rise further, Aschbacher said, adding that
5.2 billion euros have been spent on the scheme since the start
of the pandemic.
(Reporting by Francois Murphy)
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