Richard von Strigl, Der Aufbau des österreichischen Arbeitsmarktes (1936)

Richard von Strigl’s research pamphlet, issued as a supplement to the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research’s monthly reports, examines Austria’s labour market through census, insurance, and employment-office statistics. Its central argument is that mass unemployment conceals substantial differences in labour supply, occupational competence, and access to employment. Recovery cannot simply refill the employment structure of 1929: it must accommodate changing production while rebuilding the skilled workforce whose reproduction the depression has interrupted. The study moves from employment and agricultural labour through unemployment measurement and seasonality to age structure, apprenticeship, wages, and the social consequences of prolonged inactivity.

The opening comparison establishes the difficulty of measuring the market. The March 1934 census counted 590,738 unemployed workers and salaried employees, whereas employment offices registered 403,158 jobseekers. Strigl treats this discrepancy as evidence of different populations and definitions, not merely statistical error. Insurance records also have changing legal coverage; industrial surveys cover selected establishments rather than necessarily representative sectors. His analysis therefore repeatedly asks what each series measures before interpreting its movement.

The employment discussion rejects a static conception of cyclical recovery:

Wenn unsere Wirtschaft wieder in der Lage sein wird, die zur Verfügung stehenden Arbeitskräfte in wesentlich größerem Ausmaße zu beschäftigen, so wird die Aufteilung derselben auf die einzelnen Produktionszweige eine andere sein als etwa im Jahre 1929.

English translation: When our economy is again able to employ the available workers on a substantially larger scale, their distribution among the individual branches of production will differ from that in, for example, 1929.

Austria’s small economic territory and dependence on foreign markets make shifts in export opportunities especially consequential. Technical changes likewise alter labour requirements. Planning intended to restore an earlier industrial structure would consequently obstruct recovery. The improvements of 1933–35 remain modest relative to previous losses, and gains in particular industries may reflect assistance that burdens other activities. Strigl also cautions against inferring durable regional trends from short statistical runs.

Agriculture constitutes a partially separate labour market, shaped by traditional relations, family work, and remuneration that cannot be reduced to cash wages. Higher immediate industrial earnings attract young rural workers, notably through construction and public works, even when urban employment entails greater long-term insecurity. Carefully managed placements back into agriculture can relieve urban unemployment, but agriculture cannot absorb an expanding population or the unemployed cities on a large scale under unchanged production conditions.

The statistical chapters make labour supply itself variable. Registration is compulsory for benefit recipients but voluntary for many others; administrative delays can inflate recorded stocks, while discouraged workers and young people without benefit entitlement remain outside them. Casual work, intermittent assistance, and family employment blur the boundary between employment and unemployment:

Es gibt auf dem Arbeitsmarkte immer noch „Reserven“ außerhalb des Kreises der in der Statistik der Arbeitslosen Aufscheinenden.

English translation: There are always further “reserves” in the labour market outside the circle of those appearing in unemployment statistics.

These reserves explain why rising employment need not produce falling recorded unemployment. Improved prospects can attract rural workers and previously unregistered applicants faster than jobs expand. Conversely, the combined number of insured employees and registered unemployed can decline during depression as departures go unreplaced and newcomers never enter either series. Such disappearance shifts support toward relatives and poor relief; it does not demonstrate that unmet employment needs have vanished.

Seasonality further complicates aggregate interpretation. Vienna combines the outdoor trades’ spring improvement and autumn contraction with clothing and fashion industries’ distinct production calendar, creating a summer setback. Migration, uninsured casual work, holidays, and winter applications for welfare documentation also affect recorded totals. Depression can intensify seasonal fluctuations because firms concentrate production into shorter periods without fearing the loss of their workforce.

The pamphlet’s strongest substantive warning concerns the coexistence of unemployment and deteriorating skilled-labour supply. Qualified occupations need sufficiently large younger cohorts to replace mortality, occupational departures, and emigration. Yet employment has shifted toward older workers, while apprenticeship and subsequent opportunities to develop competence have contracted:

Erst nach einer guten Lehre wird im allgemeinen der strebsame und tüchtige Arbeiter sich zu einer höheren Qualifikation hinaufarbeiten.

English translation: Generally, only after a good apprenticeship will the ambitious and capable worker work his way up to a higher level of qualification.

Protecting older family breadwinners helps explain employers’ personnel choices, but Strigl also stresses the distinction between possessing an apprenticeship certificate and being fully proficient. Dismissal after training and years of intermittent or unrelated work prevent young workers from acquiring the experience demanded by Vienna’s high-quality manufacturing. He considers sectoral shifts, technical changes, and cheaper female labour when explaining women’s relatively stronger employment position, while acknowledging limits to the evidence.

The wage analysis distinguishes three mechanisms: a flexible subsistence floor, collective agreements that prevent reductions despite excess supply, and scarcity prices for qualifications rarely possessed by unemployed workers. Recovery may therefore widen the earnings gap between skilled and unskilled labour. The conclusion joins this productive problem to a social one:

Es wäre aber verfehlt, das soziale Problem der Arbeitslosigkeit allein in dem Problem der Not zu sehen.

English translation: It would, however, be mistaken to see the social problem of unemployment solely as a problem of material hardship.

Family support cannot restore blocked occupational development, advancement, or family formation. Strigl consequently rejects resignation to stabilized depression and argues for renewed expansion, international economic connections, and greater economic freedom. The pamphlet’s enduring relevance lies in showing how unemployment statistics, skill formation, and social exclusion describe different but interconnected dimensions of a labour-market crisis.