The Vienna Labour-Chamber has for ten years examined the budgets of 60—70 families of workers, employees, unemployed and small annuitants. This decade comprises both the gradual recovery of Austria's economic position from the crisis caused by the war and the inflation, and part of the crisis which began in 1929.

In 1925, out of 42 heads of households 2 were unemployed, in 1928, out of 62 none, in 1934 on the other hand 19 out of 69. The average sum of annual expenses in 1925 amounted to 3.703, in 1929 to 5.105, and in 1934 to 3.208 schillings per family; the income of the heads of households in 1934 amounted to only 62.2 % of that of 1926. Efforts on the part of other members of the family to make up for the decrease in the income of the head of the household by taking up work proved unsuccessful.

The housing conditions show an improvement till the year 1930, which is expressed in a diminuation of overcrowding; from then onwards the conditions remain rather stable with a slight tendency towards deterioration. Rents, which show a considerable rise whilst still remaining fairly low owing to the Act for the protection of Lessees, account in 1925 for 2.62 %, and in 1934 for 7.26 % of the total expenditure.

Partly as a result of the small expenditure on rent, the percentage of the household expenses spent on food is very considerable. In 1925 it amounts to 59.73 %, in 1931 (the minimum year) to 48.17 % and in 1934 to 50.64 %. The biggest item of the expenditure for food is meat, the consumption of which is more or less directly affected by the business cycle, whereas the consumption of bread and flour is hardly influenced at all. The consumption of fats shows great fluctuations in its composition; the principal constituent, however, remains always lard.