At 3.1%, Austria's unemployment rate was the third lowest in the European Union in November 2000. Youth and long-term unemployment were also kept at comparatively low levels. The employment rate of 15- to 64-year-olds, measured in terms of full employment, is one of the highest in Europe. And the outlook for the labor market remains bright.
But there is a downside, too: the low equilibrium level for nominal interest rates means that central banks have very little room to manoeuvre when there is a large negative shock, such as the one we encountered in 2008. Being constrained by the effective lower bound for interest rates has clearly prolonged the global economy’s adjustment.