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9. Working in Austria

Austria at a Glance

Working in Austria

Tourism, especially during the winter season, is an important driver of the Austrian economy.

For many people, Austria is primarily a holiday destination. Winter sports fanatics from all over the world come to Austria for their skiing holidays; others come to enjoy hiking in the Alps during summer time. Thousands of tourists flock to places like Vienna and Salzburg every year for their holidays – but working in Austria? Surely that’s just for Austrians?

Wrong. You’d be surprised to know just how many expats are working in Austria. Most of them end up working in Austria’s capital Vienna, which is home to many major international organizations, such as the OSCE and OPEC. Together with New York, Geneva and The Hague, Vienna is one of the UN cities and hosts several offices and sub-organisations of the United Nations.

Working in Austria: The Economic Climate

The fact that Austria is so widely known as a holiday destination already hints at one important truth about the Austrian economy: the importance of tourism. With 307,000 direct employees (in 2010), tourism is a significant source of income and jobs for people working in Austria. As mentioned above, the Alps feature big as Austria’s main tourist attraction, but city trips, cultural tours and spa holidays also play an important part.

Looking at the bigger picture, it is the services sector as a whole (not just tourism) which is the motor of Austria’s economy. 70% of the country’s total workforce is working in Austria’s third sector, generating over 65% of the GDP. Apart from tourism, trade and banking are the main areas of interest. People working in Austria’s banking sector still benefit from relatively strict confidentiality laws.

Austria has a modern and productive industry. The secondary sector employs 24% of all people working in Austria and accounts for roughly 33% of the GDP. Having said this, the mining industry has lost a lot of its importance in recent years. Although there is still salt and some ore mining, other areas (such as coal) have been neglected. Today, most people working in Austria’s mining industry are employed in quarries.

Working in Austria: Vineyards and Organic Farms

The primary sector contributes very little towards the GDP and only 6% of those working in Austria actually work in agriculture. And this despite the fact that 85% of Austria’s surface is agricultural or forested land. The reason may be that there is comparatively little industrial farming. 10% of agricultural enterprises and farmers working in Austria specialize in organic produce – the highest density in the EU.

Austrian wines are back in the game after the glycol scandal of the 1980s. More and more people are working in Austria’s wine business, making wine one of the country’s most important agricultural exports. Especially in Germany, Switzerland and the USA, Austrian wines enjoy particular popularity.

Working in Austria: Work Permits

In our article on moving to Austria, we have already dealt with a couple of permits for living and working in Austria, namely the EU Blue Card and the Red-White-Red Card. In this paragraph, our main concerns will be the straight work permit and the placement permit.

Project placements require a specific permit, depending on where the company sending the project worker is registered and on the nationality of the worker. If the employer is an EU-company but the employee a non-EU citizen, an EU placement permit (Entsendebestätigung) is needed for working in Austria. If neither employer nor employee is from within the EU, the Austrian contractor must apply for a foreign placement permit (Entsendebewilligung). It is valid for 4 months.

When it comes to work permits, the AMS (Austrian labor market service) distinguishes between long-term and short-term permits for foreigners working in Austria. The short-term work permit (Arbeitserlaubnis) is for people who have already been working in Austria for 52 weeks during the 14 months preceding the application and who are legally allowed to settle in Austria. Spouses and children of legally employed foreigners working in Austria may also apply. A short-term work permit is initially valid for 2 years and limited to the federal state for which it has been issued.

After five years of legally working in Austria, foreigners may apply for a long-term work permit (Befreiungsschein). It is valid for five years and allows you to take up work anywhere in the country. Foreign spouses and children of anyone legally living and working in Austria may also apply.