There is room and need for policies to enhance both labour productivity and labour utilisation.Concerning the all important financial sector the OECD is not really up to date when I remember this master piece of Bloomberg writer Meera Louis that said Austria's banks will need €165 billion and not the €100 billion that are still the official figure for Austria's dire needs in the financial sector, a shocking additional €19,400 the finance minister will have to collect not only from tax payers but also their kids.

In addition to the monetary stimulus imparted by the Eurosystem, the Austrian authorities have introduced a €100billion (36% of GDP) package, including a top-up of the deposit guarantee scheme by €10billion, €15billion for capital injections in financial institutions, and €75billion for supporting interbank lending (via a new clearing bank) and for government guarantees of bank bond issuance.

Covering the OECD's bleak outlook on the fiscal situation one has to complete the picture with Austria's disastrous demographic outlook that will force this micro-nation to roll out the red carpet for migrant workers in order to keep the rocketing share of retirees well fed and bathed in geriatric residences.

The deterioration in Austria’s fiscal position, though less dramatic than in a number of other OECD countries, is substantial and unavoidable...
First, the recent introduction of rolling four-year spending ceilings (which allow for cyclical spending on unemployment insurance and social protection) should help contain spending. Secondly, Austria has made progress with respect to containing ageing-related expenditure, especially on pensions.
Nevertheless, efforts on this front should be maintained as risks and uncertainties remain high. Pension schemes for all civil servants should be fully harmonised, incentives for early retirement should be curtailed, disability pension schemes should be redesigned, a new sustainability mechanism for the pension system should be envisaged and health reforms should be implemented more resolutely.

It is indeed difficult to understand that social democrat chancellor Werner Faymann defended the ridiculously low taxation of Austria's capitalists at the recent annual trade unions congress while the working middle class exceedingly turns into a working poor class because slightly rising nominal wages push them into higher tax brackets.
Small and big entrepreneurs have their problems too as the tax office demands advance tax payments based on the absolutely wrong hypothesis that every business owner will see 10% annual growth in the next years.

A more realistic approach would not only help small businesses - still the mainstay of economic activity - but could also lead to cost-saving reforms in Austria's bloated apparatus of public employees.