According to the latest report by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), the number of people in employment has been above the 4 million mark for almost one-and-a-half years. In April-June 2015, the number of those in employment aged 15-74 years increased by 126 thousand, to 4 million 201 thousand. Thus, the employment rate has reached a 23-year high in Hungary and the unemployment rate fell to an 11-year low of 6.9 percent.

The employment rate of those aged 15-64 years edged up by 2.5 percentage points, to 63.8 percent, over the past one year. As far as the gender aspect of employment data is concerned, indicators have improved for both women and men. The employment rate of men aged 15-64 years was up by 2.8 percentage points to 70.1 percent year-on-year. The number of women in employment aged 15-64 was also above 1.9 million, while the respective employment rate improved to 57.6 percent and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent. In comparison to the corresponding period of 2010, the number of women in employment grew by 180 thousand in Hungary.

Compared to data from the same period of last year, the employment rate of those aged 15-24 years was up by 2.1 percentage points, to 25.2 percent, while the number of people with a job increased to 278 thousand.

In the same period, the overall number of jobless people fell by 49 thousand, to 310 thousand, thus the unemployment rate improved by 1.2 percentage points to 6.9 percent. This indicator showed improvement in all the seven statistical regions of Hungary.

Recent macro-economic data signal further improvement and that is expected to have a positive impact on fiscal revenues and household consumption. The impressive growth in the number of people in employment has been the result of the Government’s active employment policy measures, lower taxes on labour, the Job Protection Action Plan and the positive economic trend reversal in 2013.

For detailed data please visit www.ksh.hu.

(Ministry for National Economy)