ÖVP Labor Minister Martin Kocher reported today in the parliamentary social affairs committee that around 9.82 billion euros had been spent on the COVID-19 short-time work model by the end of 2022. Including outstanding commitments, the budget burden at the end of December 2022 was around EUR 9.91 billion.
A look back shows that in 2022 there were lower payments for short-time work than in the two previous years. While a total of almost 5.5 billion euros in short-time work subsidies were paid out in 2020 and around 3.7 billion euros in 2021, around 626 million euros were added in 2022.
Between March 2020 and the end of December 2022, a total of 1,335,308 people were involved in short-time work projects. Those affected were on short-time work for an average of 118 days. At the end of December of the previous year, the proportion of women was 44.6 percent.
Those most affected were those in the manufacturing, retail, accommodation and catering sectors. In a comparison of the federal states, Vienna and Lower Austria were at the top in 2022, according to the press service of the Parliamentary Directorate.
