“The number of registered job seekers in Hungary fell during the week beginning on 15 June for the first time since the introduction of the emergency measures, indicating a labour market turnaround”, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology’s State Secretary for Economic Strategy and Regulation László György said at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.

The State Secretary explained that when the crisis erupted, there were 281 thousand registered job seekers in the week beginning on 16 March, with their numbers increasing to 376,452 by the end of the week beginning on 8 June, but in the week beginning on 15 June, the number of registered job seekers fell by 255 to 376,195.

According to Mr. György, the improvement is thanks to enterprises, which have begun taking on new employees again, and this process is being facilitated by the government’s wage subsidy program.
In reply to a question, the State Secretary said that the largest numbers of workplaces are being created within the fields of tourism, hospitality, the retail sector and the processing industry.

Mr. György said that thanks to the measures of the Economy Protection Action Plan, such as the Student Loan Plus scheme and the job-protection wage subsidy, the government has been able to successfully target those who are at the greatest risk: young people, and especially the under 20s and people between the ages of 20 and 29, as well as people who have been forced to work shortened hours.

“The success of the Action Plan is indicated by the fact that Hungary continues to have the fourth lowest rate of unemployment in the European Union. Only the Netherlands (3.6 percent), Poland (2.9 percent) and the Czech Republic (2.2 percent) can boast a more favourable figure than Hungary’s current rate of unemployment of 4.1 percent”, the State Secretary told the press.

(Ministry for Innovation and Technology/MTI)