Forecast of Employment, Unemployment Rate and Wage Bill of the Austrian Health Insurance Funds by Länder for the Years 2021 to 2026

The surprisingly strong upswing in the Austrian economy since May 2021 also led to a revision of WIFO's medium-term forecast at the beginning of October. In 2021, gross domestic product should increase by 4.4 percent, employment by 2.1 percent, and the unemployment rate should decrease to 8.2 percent. For 2022, WIFO expects a GDP growth of 5.0 percent, which should decrease to 2.4 percent (2023) and further on to 1.8 percent (2026) in the following years. Regionally, the peak of employment growth should be reached in 2021 in the provinces of the Eastern and Southern regions as well as in Upper Austria. In the Western provinces, this peak will not be reached until 2022 due to the weak first quarter of 2021. In 2021, wage bill should also grow the most in Burgenland and in Carinthia. Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Salzburg will achieve the highest wage bill growth in 2022.