In industrialized countries, mobility represents one of the most important sources of CO 2 emissions. Most research on promoting sustainable, climate-friendly modes of transportation has focused on urban areas. Rural areas-although characterized by high dependency on individual car ownership and usage-have received less attention. This article explores the potential role of rural employers in supporting sustainable alternatives to commuting by (single-occupied) motorized vehicles among their employees. We conduct a collective case study that considers five employers located in Eastern Austria (Burgenland), drawing from multiple data sources including structured surveys, expert interviews, focus groups, and site visits. Our analysis shows that employers have little incentive to implement measures that foster sustainable mobility among their employees. On the one hand, the costs accruing to employers for implementing such measures tend to exceed the corresponding benefits by a significant margin (unlike in urban areas where significant cost reductions can arise for employers). On the other hand, also employees generally exhibit little demand for such measures. We conclude that both from a societal and a business perspective, it is not efficient to promote sustainable mobility in rural areas via employers.

Trade unions and environmental movements are often seen as political opponents most prominently discussed in the form of the 'jobs vs. environment dilemma'. Based on historical examples of the conflict relations between trade unions and environmental groups in the Austrian energy sector, this paper showcases how the relationship between the two groups has changed from enmity to first attempts at alliance building. Drawing from analysis of union documents and problem-centred interviews conducted with Austrian unionists, it shows that newly emerging alliances between unions and environmental movements contain the seeds for a broad societal movement that can help overcome the paradigm of growth and actively engage in the creation of policies that support a social-ecological transformation.

In 2015, large numbers of forced migrants crossed the borders to the European Union and the influx of new arrivals has led to the important question of implications for the host societies. This article assesses the labour market profile and previous employment of the recent inflows of displaced persons, mainly coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, sectoral unemployment rates and trends in job openings in different economic branches in the host society are compared to the profiles of the refugee population. Analyses are based on two unique datasets on displaced persons in Austria: DiPAS (a social survey among asylum seekers) and competence checks (information on occupational and transferable skills). Results indicate that the labour supply provided by refugees' roughly corresponds to the labour demand in Austria. In terms of a potential impact on the Austrian labour market, this match might be regarded as favourable.

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