Handel, Wirtschaftsbereich#

Trade, important sector of economic activity, indispensable to an economy based on the division of labour as the mediator between producers and consumers, limited to the sale of movables (goods, commodities) and, in addition, serving to bridge the distance, in time and space, between manufacturers and end-users. Along with these distribution functions trade also has economic (advance financing, price fixing, warehousing), communicative (advertising, advisory) and, in recent times, ecological functions (such as the disposal of packaging materials.

In Austria, trading activities are broken down into 24 retail and 26 wholesale branches. The total number of trading companies registered as employers was more than 31.100 retail and 18.200 wholesale trading firms in 1996. Trade not only has an important role as an employer (approx. 431.000 employees in 1996) but also provides vocational training (20.212 apprentices in 1995). Foreign Trade.