The rules for additional income for the unemployed threaten to increase the labor shortage in restaurants.
Restaurants across Austria are concerned that the new rules for 2026 regarding additional income for the unemployed will exacerbate the labor shortage. Business owners fear that the changes will lead to further job losses in a sector that is already struggling with a shortage of skilled labor.
The details published by the newspaper Heutete indicate that the hospitality sector has faced a severe labor crisis in recent years, before conditions improved relatively recently due to rising wages and the return of many workers who left the sector during the Corona pandemic. However, the spokesperson for the restaurant sector in Vienna, Thomas Pichsta, confirmed that finding skilled workers remains a significant challenge.
The identity newspaper clarifies that the new rules stipulate the cancellation of the possibility of combining financial assistance for the unemployed with marginal work starting from January 2026, with the exception of only four legally specified categories. Accordingly, all unemployed individuals will be required to terminate their marginal jobs before the end of January, otherwise they will lose their entitlement to benefits retroactively, which raises widespread concern in the restaurant sector.
Ernst Lackner, owner of the 'G'schamster Dinner' restaurant in the sixth district of Vienna, warns that the new regulations may deprive restaurants of the 'ten-hour workers' that many rely on for cleaning and basic support, adding that hiring full-time workers will create a financial burden that is hard to bear. He confirmed that most workers in the sector are 'dissatisfied' with these amendments, which could increase burdens and deepen the labor shortage crisis.
The sector indicates that the actual repercussions of these decisions may not become clear until the spring of next year, when the new system comes into full effect and begins to impact the labor market and the ability of restaurants to continue performing their operational tasks.