The current activity status classifies the population into important social groups like employed, unemployed, students, persons receiving a pension and other currently not economically active people.
For the reference date, 31 October 2018, 52.8% of the Austrian population are currently economically active (4 672 908 persons), they are employed or unemployed. The remaining half of the population (47.2% or 4 178 509 persons) consists of currently not economically active persons.
From the group of employed persons, 4 278 316 are at work and 92 087 are temporary absent, 302 505 are unemployed. Among the currently not economically active population 1 884 343 persons are receiving a pension, 1 279 793 persons are below the age of 15, 343 143 persons are students aged 15 years and over and 671 230 are other currently not economically active persons.
According to the Register-based Census held on 31 October 2011, more than half of the Austrian population is currently economically active (4 271 555 or 50.8%). The other half of the population (4 130 385 or 49.2%) consists of persons below the age of 15, persons receiving a pension, students at the age of 15 and over and other currently not economically active people.
Persons receiving a pension represent the largest group within the currently not economically active people (1 855 735 or 22.1%). Because of their higher life expectancy and lower pension age, women receiving a pension (23.7%) constitute a larger share than men (20.4%). Students account for 18.9% of the population (1 585 827 persons).
The fraction of the currently economically active people in the population has risen continuously since the census in 1971. In 2011, currently economically active people represent more than half of the Austrian population for the first time.
The labour participation of women has increased considerably in the last decades, while the fraction of currently economically active men of the entire population has been slowly decreasing since 1991. However, the labour participation of women (46.5%) is still below that of men (55.4%).
The share of persons below the age of 15 has decreased by almost 10 percentage points from 24.2% in 1971 to 15.6% in 2011, while the number of persons receiving a pension has increased continuously.
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