One of the main objectives of the Hungarian Government is to give further impetus to labour market growth, Minister for National Economy Mihály Varga said at the OECD conference of employment and labour ministers held in Paris. Following this year’s first plenary session, the Minister said that Hungary is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hungary’s OECD membership and the country will devote a full-year programme to mark this event.
At the meeting, the Minister mentioned among Hungarian measures aimed at boosting the labour market the reduction of taxes on labour, the introduction of the Job Protection Act, the redirection of large numbers of formerly inactive people to the labour market, the reform of the vocational education system, the start of new adult education programmes, the Youth Guarantee Programme as well as the support of flexible work forms.
Mihály Varga noted that through supporting the capacity expansion of SMEs the Government also aims to fuel employment. As he emphasised, the objective of the calls for SME tenders is to bolster the economic performance of enterprises which is expected to help keep existing jobs and create of new ones.
Thanks to these measures, the number of people in employment has been above 4 million in Hungary, the Minister noted. According to the latest data, this indicator has now reached the highest point in 25 years, while the unemployment rate fell to an 11-year low, to 6.2 percent. The employment rate of those aged 15-64 years grew by 2.2 percentage points over the past one year, to 65 percent. Good results have also been achieved concerning youth unemployment, as the number of people aged 15-24 years in employment rose by more than 80 thousand over the past five years, to 297 thousand. The respective number of jobless people in this age group fell by 13 thousand, to 53 thousand. Mihály Varga said that this year the Government is to launch several new pro-employment programmes, based partly on EU and partly on domestic funding.
This year’s ministerial level meeting was of special importance for Hungary, as the country has been an active member of the OECD for 20 years. Thanks to Government efforts and OECD proposals, the Government has in recent years managed to place the Hungarian economy on a sustainable growth path, within which wages are rising and employment and consumption indicators are improving. The Minster stressed that Hungary has over the past 20 years utilized several good practises of the OECD and member countries, but we have also presented several reform measures and experiences.
(Ministry for National Economy)
