VIENNA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Austrian unemployment rate has decreased 7.1 percent year-over-year in April to see 384,486 people without work, the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) said in a report Wednesday.
The AMS said this equates to 7.7 percent national unemployment as per Austria's own calculation criteria.
It further noted that the number of employed persons increased by 89,000 or 2.5 percent over the same period, taking their total number to 3.694 million.
Unemployment for men decreased 8.8 percent to 204,573 persons, considerably more than that of women that decreased 4.9 percent down to 179,913.
Other notable drops were seen in persons aged under 25 (down six percent), those aged over 50 (down 5.5 percent), and for long-term unemployment persons --defined as being out of work for 12 months or more (down 11.4 percent).
Minister of Labour Beate Hartinger-Klein said the figures are part of a "positive trend" that must be maintained.
The government must make sure the increasing number of available job positions can also be filled by qualified personnel, she added.
