I was on an extended business trip so my reply is rather slow...and my initial response sub-optimal (I'll blame my pre-trip stress for that ;-) ).

Austria doesn't have "degree inflation" like the US. It is different here. Austria has "title inflation" which is not exactly the same thing. During the monarchy, there were a lot of public servants in the understandably large bureaucracy needed to manage an 800 year old multicultural empire. A lot of these jobs didn't pay well. So they gave jobs important sounding titles to give social status as a substitute.

Over the last century since the end of the monarchy, the tendency of Austrians to covet titles has not changed. Academic titles are are part of that.

The Austrian school system is multi-layered and very different and (IMO) superior to the US system. Kids can leave school at 14 and take apprenticeships, for example. There are multiple levels of high schools, two of which are like "specific high school for either tech or business plus a year of junior college" that allows a graduate to start in a trade.

Technical high schools grads can go to college but many don't. It is where I get basically all my technical employees, whether they went to university or not.

Hope that clears things up and sorry for my confused first reply.