Actual Implications of the Current Economic Crisis for Austrian Enterprises – Results of a Company Survey

This article is based on the results of a survey conducted among 731 Austrian companies and supplements the known macroeconomic facts about the current economic crisis with micro data. While a decline in demand was the main challenge companies faced, they also had to cope with financing problems and customers’ payment difficulties. 16% of Austrian companies reported major or even severe financing difficulties owing to the crisis, with small enterprises feeling a greater impact than large firms. Furthermore, the survey showed that the crisis caused enterprises to increasingly save on wage costs. Here, companies hit hard by the crisis cut costs primarily through layoffs, followed by a reduction in working hours. Although base wages were cut more frequently than in economically calm times, this measure continued to be the exception rather than the rule even during the crisis, which indicates the existence of nominal wage rigidities in Austria.