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Austrian black labor market to grow in 2015: expert

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The size of the black labor market in Austria is expected to grow in size for the third year in a row in 2015, local media reported on Wednesday.

The country's black labor market is estimated to be worth 24.3 billion U.S. dollars, or 8.1 percent of the country's gross domestic product, this year, Kronen Zeitung newspaper cited Friedrich Schneider, an economics professor from the Johannes Kepler University of Linz, as saying.

Growing unemployment and high burden of tax and social security costs contributed to the growth of the black labor market, according to the newspaper.

Despite the money earned through illegal employment is generally immediately spent into the official economy, Schneider believed the growth in the black labor market has made the government the biggest loser, with its annual economic loss standing between 2.3 to 4 billion dollars in taxes and social security contributions.

According to the expert, another major loser is health insurance provider, who must bear the cost of accidents that occur during illicit work and received no contribution for such cost.

According to Schneider, the construction has the highest proportion of undeclared worker, with 39 percent working in the sector are illegal employees. It is followed by other business enterprises and household-related services, which has 17 percent workforce coming from the black labor market. Endit