In light of data from June 2015, enterprises claimed allowances granted by the Job Protection Action for more than 850 thousand employees and thus employers have saved some HUF 300bn over the past two-and-a-half years, Minister of State for Employment Sándor Czomba told public news channel M1.

Sándor Czomba stressed that the programme not only protects jobs but it has also created new ones, around 80 thousand in total.

In the opinion of the Minister of State, the option of the scheme’s extension must be assessed: it has already been broadened in case of free entrepreneurial zones, while the number of beneficiaries among agricultural enterprises was increased as of July.

As the Ministry reported in a press release, the programme left HUF 97bn at private sector employers in the first year of the scheme, in 2013. Last year, this amount almost reached HUF 125bn and it totalled HUF 65bn in the first half of this year.

The scheme improved the job prospects of 319 thousand people above the age of 55 years and 293 thousand unskilled workers. The number of people under the age of 25 years who were assisted in landing or keeping a job was 160 thousand.

Thanks to the employment programmes of the Government, unemployment and employment rates have been continuously improving in Hungary. According to the latest data, the unemployment rate fell below 7 percent, and the number of people in employment reached 4.2 million for the first time since the regime change.

(Ministry for National Economy)