Vienna — Austria is failing to attract enough skilled foreign workers and must instead do more to integrate refugees already in the country, according to Johannes Kopf, head of Austria’s Public Employment Service (AMS). In an interview with APA, Kopf described the latest labor market projections as “a really bad piece of news,” warning that demographic pressures cannot be solved “through the Red-White-Red Card alone.” Austria, he said, is simply “not the number one destination for international professionals.”
Kopf urged the government to better utilize the potential of those already present, including refugees and unaccompanied minors. “With proper training, they could achieve vocational qualifications and become the skilled workers of tomorrow,” he said, noting that provinces such as Carinthia will be hit hardest by labor shortages in the coming years.
Austria has long sought to recruit professionals from outside the European Union, but progress remains slow. Just over 12,400 skilled workers currently hold the Red-White-Red Card, a tiny fraction of the roughly four million people employed in Austria. After the turbulence of the pandemic, inflation, and economic slowdown, unemployment has been rising since 2023 and is expected to fall only gradually by 2026.
Ten years after the refugee crisis, Kopf said integration efforts have made “tremendous progress,” with more than 60,000 people from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran now working in Austria. Still, he cautioned that most refugees remain concentrated in Vienna, renewing his call for a residency rule to balance regional population pressures.
Kopf also warned that although more people are employed than ever, total working hours have declined. He said expanding full-day childcare could help more parents work full-time, reducing Austria’s exceptionally high part-time rate. Dismissing nationalist criticism, he argued that using all available talent, native or foreign, is essential if Austria hopes to stay competitive in a changing world.
