Abstract:
Coming from the perspective of German political science the Austrian wel-fare system is, despite all differences, an interesting example, because it has the reputation of a highly successful conservative regime. Therefore, this WiP-Paper deals with two important policy fields of the Austrian wel-fare Regime. Employment policy and its organisation through the Public Employment Service Austria will be discussed first. Hereby it is of special interest that further qualification measures of employees will be needed to overcome labour market’s structural problems – however, these measures have to go beyond traditional vocational trainings. The second part of the paper deals with the Austrian pension system. Its reforms were compara-tively massive and came along with considerable benefit cuts, however the reform policies started at a rather high level. All in all the Austrian pension system will in future be able to secure a high standard of living.