!!!Gewerbe und Handwerk

Crafts and Trades: Scholarly research into crafts and trades began 
after World War II, when this sector of industry began to be seen 
as an economic activity in its own right, predominantly characterised 
by the intention to meet a highly differentiated demand through goods 
and services chiefly provided due to the personal efforts of the 
entrepreneur, his thorough training and skill and the use of his own 
means of production. Crafts and trades make up one section of the  
Wirtschaftskammer Oesterreich

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In 1996 about 77,000 business establishments of this kind existed in 
Austria (= 37 % of all businesses registered with the Austrian Chamber 
of Commerce). The crafts and trades section of the Chamber had 142,000 
members at that time, a figure that indicates a certain number of 
mixed businesses or multiple memberships, an increase of 38% on 1981.

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Structural changes within the sector have for decades been 
characterised by increasing specialisation (e.g. in the case of 
mechanics), mechanisation, a higher degree of automation and a shift 
from production to repairs. Some small-scale industrial firms have 
also taken over some of the functions of trading firms (about 15% of 
turnover). After a period when companies tended to increase their 
number of employees (from 5 to 8) in the mid-seventies, the average 
size of Austrian companies has remained fairly stable. In 1902, 84.4% 
of such businesses employed less than three people (80% in 1939, 75,5% 
in 1954 and 61% in 1983). After 1983, the number of small-scale 
enterprises did not vary a great deal, though it tended to increase 
slightly (to 62% in 1988). In 1902, 29% of all workers were employed 
in small-scale enterprises, as against 15.5% in 1954 and 13% in 1988. 
For decades, businesses have been trying to enlarge their field of 
activity, with motorcar repair shops adding petrol stations and cafes 
to their services, etc. Blacksmiths are building and selling 
agricultural machinery, locksmiths are going into plumbing and 
fitting, saddle-makers are expanding their activities to include 
upholstering. On the other hand, more and more large manufacturing 
firms are becoming involved in craft and trade activities: Electric 
power companies, for example, install electrical devices and train 
apprentices, industrial firms in some branches are increasingly ready 
to install and repair their products. Still, the basic difference 
between industrial enterprises and the crafts and trades remains 
valid, as does the difference in their respective economic roles, i.e. 
satisfying uniform needs by the large-scale use of equipment vs. 
catering for individual demand by greater reliance on human resources. 
Further structural changes in crafts and trades activities are marked 
by a trend towards offering services, resulting in a significant 
increase in the foundation of companies from 1990 to 1995. Most of 
these provide business services in fields such as management 
consulting, information technologies, real estate sales and consulting 
and advertising.

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In 1996, 31 % of all gainfully employed Austrians were employed in 
crafts and trades, the largest sector on the job-market (followed by 
the industry section with 24.1% and the trade section with 21.3%). The 
biggest branches of crafts and trades, where three-quarters of all 
workers were employed in 1996, were the building and ancillary trades 
(about 27 %), the metal-processing firms (about 27 %) and the service 
sector (about 22 %). Branches that used to be predominantly artisanal 
in character, such as food production and processing (approx. 8% in 
1996), wood-working (approx. 7%) and clothing (approx. 2 %) have 
declined considerably in absolute and relative terms but remain on an 
equal footing with modern branches such as chemistry and synthetics 
processing (6%) or the printing trade (4% of total employment in the 
crafts and trades).  Handicrafts


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