Austrian Research and Technology Report 2020

Employment in R&D institutions
In parallel with increasing research expenditure, the 
number of people employed in R&D has also grown 
significantly since 2007, as shown in Table 1-6. In 
terms of full-time equivalent positions (FTE), R&D 
staffing has increased most in the private non-profit 
sector, followed by the government sector. The lat-
ter has more than doubled; this figure includes the 
Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and the 
JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft 
mbH (classified in the government sector since 
Table 1-5: R&D expenditure and employees in the business enterprise sector by economic sub-sector and 
knowledge intensity, 2007 and 2017
2007
2017
Employees 
in R&D, full 
time equiva-
lents
R&D 
expendi-
ture
Gross 
value 
added 
(GVA)
R&D as a 
percentage 
of GVA
Employees 
in R&D, full 
time equiva-
lents
R&D 
 expendi-
ture
Gross 
value 
added 
(GVA)
R&D as a 
percentage 
of GVA
Proportion of all sectors in %
In %
Proportion of all sectors in %
In %
Agriculture, forestry and fishing 
0.0
0.0
1.6
0.0
0.0
0.2
1.3
0.3
Mining 
0.1
0.2
0.4
0.8
0.1
0.1
0.3
0.9
Manufacturing 
69.6
69.8
20.3
6.6
62.7
65.5
18.9
8.3
Types of technology 
High technology
14.4
16.7
1.7
18.4
12.5
14.4
1.8
19.4
Medium-high technology
39.6
39.6
6.8
11.2
35.9
38.0
6.7
13.5
Medium-low technology
9.7
8.9
6.0
2.8
10.5
9.8
5.6
4.2
Low technology
4.6
4.1
4.9
1.6
2.7
3.1
4.1
1.8
Cannot be allocated
1.4
0.6
0.9
1.2
1.1
0.2
0.7
0.7
Energy and water supply 
0.2
0.3
3.3
0.2
0.3
0.5
2.8
0.4
Building 
0.5
0.4
6.9
0.1
0.8
1.0
6.5
0.4
Services 
29.5
29.3
67.5
0.8
36.2
32.8
70.1
1.1
Knowledge intensity 
High-technology, knowledge-
intensive
18.6
15.7
4.2
7.1
22.7
19.6
5.8
8.1
Other services 
10.9
13.6
63.3
0.4
13.5
13.2
64.3
0.5
Note: Economic sub-sectors as per Austrian Statistical Classification of Economic Activities (ÖNACE) 2008. Types of technology as per Eurostat: high 
technology (industries 21–26), medium-high technology (industries 20, 27–30), medium-low technology (industries 19, 22–25, 33), low technology (10–18, 
31–32); industries 12, 13, 14 and 19 are included in the category “Cannot be allocated” due to data not being published. Knowledge intensity as per Eu-
rostat: “High-technology, knowledge-intensive” includes industries 59–63 and 72 as well as industry 58 on account of aggregated data. Other services: 
the remainder. GVA = gross value added.
Source: Statistics Austria. Calculations: WPZ Research.

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