The Territorial Employment Pact for Vienna within the Framework of the National Action Plan for Employment
The Territorial Employment Pact for Vienna within the Framework of the National Action Plan for Employment
In its National Action Plan for employment (NAP), the Austrian government has set itself the target of creating a total of 100,000 additional jobs by 2002 and of reducing unemployment.
This target is explicitly formulated in the NAP:
"This target can only be achieved by means of a comprehensive and coordinated overall employment policy strategy. The measures taken by the administration and the legislator at all levels should be examined wherever possible with regard to their impact on employment. The employment policy can only be successful if it receives support from all the relevant policy areas and in particular from the social partners and regional and local governments. Not least this requires a corresponding participation in employment promotion by all public legal bodies in both organisational and financial terms. In order to take account of specific regional characteristics, territorial employment pacts are to be reached with the help of which programmes can be developed at regional level, with the help of the social partners, in order to maximise the effectiveness of employment creation."
Immediately after the adoption of the NAP in April, the Federal Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (BMAGS), together with the public employment service (AMS), approached the Federal Chancellor in order to initiate and concretise a new form of cooperation. From the outset, the views expressed by the Vienna city administration were clearest, so that a territorial pact for the capital can now be presented.
The main aims of this new form of cooperation with the federal states are:
- to establish a wide-ranging partnership between regions and local authorities in order to determine the employment-policy difficulties, views and aims of all regional and local actors;
- to deploy all the resources available for a coordinated strategy that is acceptable to the actors involved, is in line with genuine needs, and is set out in a territorial employment pact;
- to ensure better coordination between and targeting of employment-policy activities;
- to implement activities and measures in the form of pilot projects.
4.5.2.1. The employment pact in Vienna
The Viennese labour market can be characterised as follows: at the end of August 1998, 780,526 persons (418,834 men and 361,692 women) were in employment. This marked an increase of 7,069 (0.9%) on the previous year. The unemployment rate in Vienna was 8.3%, substantially above the Austrian average of 5.9%. Expressed in absolute terms, 70,343 persons (38,956 men and 31,387 women) were registered unemployed in the capital, 4,202 more than in the previous year.
Both labour market and structural policy measures are to be realised within the framework of the project which shall be organised jointly by the City of Vienna, the BMAGS and the AMS, and which has a budget of around ATS 750 million.
The City of Vienna will provide ATS 200 million, a further ATS 200 million will come from the budget set aside for implementing the National Action Plan, and ATS 330 million will be obtained from channelling funds for passive unemployment insurance benefits into active labour market policy ("special integration support"). In addition, the City of Vienna has committed itself under the programme to rigorously examining all its activities with a view to the scope for promoting employment opportunities.
4.5.2.2. General principles underlying territorial pacts
The principles for developing territorial pacts of relevance throughout Austria are as follows:
1. Additional employment opportunities in the service sector
In the longer term, labour market developments point to positive employment prospects, particularly within the service sector. Alongside producer services, new employment opportunities are likely to develop particularly in personal and social services, not least due to the demographic trend towards an increasing proportion of the elderly in the overall population. This means that ways must be found to transpose this genuine demand for labour services into effective and legal jobs with corresponding pay and working conditions. Here, the federal states will play a central role, as they are responsible for many of these services (child care, health and care services, etc.). Yet given the financial restrictions on the scope for extending such employment opportunities - because of strict limits on central and regional government budgets, the aim must be to open up new paths in the form of public-private partnerships in new and, above all, already existing networks.
2. Creating jobs at regional and local level
Local development and employment initiatives are of increasing importance. Additional employment can be effectively created at regional and local level when local authority investment projects are implemented as part of a conscious policy of improving local structures, setting the basis for ongoing development.
3. Increasing the employment impact of public measures
Public measures exert a significant impact on employment. However, because many of these measures have so far not been - or not primarily been - implemented with a view to their employment effects, policy-makers are often not aware of the importance of their decisions. It is therefore an important aim to ensure that the activities of the administration and the legislator are carefully examined with a view to their employment-policy potential, so as to tap additional job-creation opportunities.
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