In an international hierarchy of labour costs, Austria currently ranks 9th and is thus well within the EU average. Labour is most expensive in Norway, where one hour of work is paid 34 percent higher than in Austria, followed by Denmark (+29 percent), Germany (+26 percent) and Switzerland (+24...

The unit labour cost position of Austrian businesses improved clearly in the second half of the 1990s and has remained largely stable since the year 2000. In Austrian manufacturing, one hour of blue-collar labour cost 20.80 € in 2004, hence approximately 2.25 percent less than the average paid...