Landing a job is increasingly worth it in Hungary. Since 2010, the unemployment rate has fallen by two-thirds, to a historic low; tax cuts and wage hikes are leaving more and more money at employees and wages in real terms have been rising steadily for more than five years now.

Thanks to a historic wage agreement, the minimum wage and guaranteed minimum wage increased significantly, and as a result earnings in real terms were up by above 10 percent year-on-year at the beginning of 2018, after similar growth was registered the year before.

The objectives of the Government have remained unchanged: to reach full employment and pass on the fruits of economic growth to employees. Steadily rising wages are underpinned also by public sector wage hikes, tax reductions and economic expansion. Compared to the beginning of 2010, net earnings – excluding family tax allowances – were up by 56 percent at the beginning of 2018.

Concurrently, earnings in real terms also rose, by more than 32 percent. Taking family tax allowances into account, they grew by more than 38 percent over the course of the past eight years. Rising wages and the dynamic growth in the number of people employed are driving economic growth and help maintain fiscal balance. The estimated GDP growth rate of more than 4 percent for this year is signalling further earnings growth which is expected to result in the sound improvement of the standard of living in coming months.

(Ministry for National Economy)