“The rate of unemployment has fallen to 3.4 percent, the lowest level ever, from almost 12 percent in 2010, while there are currently 4.5 people in permanent employment in Hungary”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga declared with relation to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

The Minister said the major decrease in the rate of unemployment means that Hungary currently has the fourth lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, in a tie with Malta.

Mr. Varga said the Government’s goal is for the rate of unemployment to gradually fall to below 3 percent, thereby achieving full employment. As he explained, the available reserve workforce is being continuously included in employment, and the administration is supporting the introduction of jobseekers, inactive workers and public works employees into the private sector via several instruments. As a result of the Government’s measures, the average period spent in unemployment has fallen greatly, which is also facilitating a further increase in the number of people in employment.

The Minister pointe out that the number of people in employment in Hungary has been over 4.5 million for four months now, without the effects of seasonality, thanks to measures to promote work and permanently high economic growth. Enterprises are reacting to the current job market situation by using the workforce more efficiently, which on the one hand reduces the rigidity of the job market, while also laying the foundations for continuing pay rises in line with improving productivity. There has been an increased of 84 thousand people on Hungary’s primary job market within the space of one year, parallel to which the number of people working within the framework of the state-funding public work scheme has fallen by 48 thousand, some 30 percent.

(Ministry of Finance)