Why is unemployment rate so low in the Alpes

[Tender Branson]

Alpes ? The dark green spot covering Switzerland/Austria/Bavaria/BaWü is not exactly Alpes.

What else is it then ?



As for the question: I don't know if there's a special reason, but summer and winter tourism might have a lot to do with it. It's a job magnet. Switzerland of course can be explained partly because of the historic Protestant hard-work ethic.

[Tender Branson]

Another factor could be the demographic change. In many sectors, the old generation which is now 65 is now retiring and this generation was very numerous, birth-statistics-wise. About 65 years ago, birth rates were about 2%, whereas now the birth rate in the "Alpine" region is about 0.9% annually. This means that a gap is opening in a lot of sectors because many olds are retiring and the less numerous young ones can't fill everything (but still a good amount, which is why youth unemployment in the Alpine region is so low). And that's also why German/Austrian/Swiss companies are now already hiring tons of skilled people from Spain/Portugal/Greece etc. because not enough young skilled workers can be found at home anymore. There have been job fairs in Madrid in which about 500 people applied for 1 job. But there are not many Spanish etc. who actually go to Germany/Austria because of the language barriers and because it's hard to leave the family and friends behind. But the situation here for example is like this: 40.000 high-skilled jobs could/need to be filled right now here, even with an unemployment rate of 4%. So my Southern friends, if you want a good job, want to learn German and live here, come here. There are plenty jobs available here in the next years ...

[Tender Branson]

The next thing might sound a bit crude, but think about it:

My company of 40 people employs about 10 young apprentices. Why ? Because they are cheap and because the boss wants to give them a chance. Most of them work as hard as a regular worker and almost everyone will pass the apprenticeship-test after 3 years. Many of them are also getting their university access diplomas by taking courses AFTER work. Some of them will study, most of them will be kept within the company in case the olds retire. They have a perspective.

Now we jump to Spain, Greece etc. where some 25-year old university student takes a class about a useless subject he/she won't need in the next 40 years. Because there are no jobs after studying, Spanish/Greek guy moves in with parents and writes job applications. Not a lot happens because in real life you don't need a degree in philosophy.

Who do you think an employer will hire earlier ? An apprentice from let's say sales/management with a 3-year experience in real-life work and customer contact, or some student with a philosophy degree that didn't work a lot in the last 6 or so years ? So, the main difference between here and other parts of Europe could also be a lack of employers' trust in young people.

The side effect though is that the young working Austrian apprentice then says: Oh look at all these foreigners, they taaaakkkee uuuurr jobsss ! while the Spanish student says: Things suck, where is the next strike to participate in ? Meh, let's vote Socialist.