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The AMS algorithm: Austria's jobseeker scoring system
Image: Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), from its project page on the AMS algorithm. All rights reserved by the owner.
- Reported by
- Institute of Technology Assessment (ÖAW), epicenter.works
- Methods
- Document review
- Regulator investigation
Austria's public employment service (AMS) built an algorithm, AMAS, to sort jobseekers into groups with high, medium and low chances on the job market. Its development documentation showed that gender and citizenship lowered some people's predicted chances, and that care duties counted only for women. After concerns from researchers, the Ombudsman Board and digital-rights groups, the data protection authority stopped it in August 2020. The courts later sided with the AMS, which had deleted all AMAS data and said it would not revive the system.
oeaw.ac.atThe AMS algorithm: Austria's jobseeker scoring systemA regression-based system (AMAS) built for Austria's public employment service. It estimated each jobseeker's short- and long-term chances of finding work from personal data such as gender, age, citizenship, education, health impairment and care duties, and sorted them into three groups that shaped access to training and support.Austria · Reported by the Institute of Technology Assessment (ÖAW), epicenter.works and others (opens in a new tab)How they investigated
Document review
Documentation released during development listed the model's inputs: gender, age, citizenship, education, health impairment, care obligations (for women only), occupational group and previous jobs, compared against a reference group of young men with secondary education. Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Technology Assessment and TU Wien analysed it for the Upper Austria Chamber of Labour and concluded it would reinforce social inequality.
Regulator investigation
On 19 August 2020 the data protection authority banned AMAS, citing the lack of a legal basis and prohibited automated profiling. The Federal Administrative Court overturned the ban in December 2020, the Supreme Administrative Court set that aside in December 2023, and on 1 September 2025 the Federal Administrative Court lifted the ban for good, finding that advisers made the final decision. The AMS had deleted all AMAS data in 2020.