The October jobless rate was at a 20 year record high for that month, the economics and employment ministry announced on Wednesday. Compared with October 2003, it rose by a marginal 0.4 per cent, or 1,000 workers, to just over 224,600. Adding nearly 49,000 unemployed people in officially sponsored job training courses, who are not included in the figures, the October unemployment total was more than 273,000. The ministry said that compared with September, there were 7.7 per cent more unemployed in October. The rise in the October jobless rate compared with October 2003 was exclusively among women. The rate for men fell by 1.3 per cent while for women it went up by 2.4 per cent. Unemployment among young people aged under 25 declined, as did that among older workers aged 49 or over. By national reckoning, with the number of people in employment used as a 100 per cent base, the Austrian October rate was 7.1 per cent. By E.U. Eurostat figures, which have a broader 100 per cent base including employed, self-employed and unemployed, the Austrian figure is about 4.5 per cent, only half the Eurozone average.
