“The number of people in employment in Hungary has exceeded four and a half million for the first time, which indicates that more and more people from still existing workforce reserves are moving into the world of work”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga said, evaluating the latest employment figures.

The Minister said that parallel to this, unemployment in Hungary remains extremely low at 3.7 percent, adding that this puts us in joint fourth place with the Netherlands on the list of EU countries with the lowest unemployment.

Mr. Varga stressed that the increase in the number of people in employment is primarily the result of private sector expansion, were the number of people in employment increased by 109 thousand during the space of one year. As he explained, the favourable process could be further facilitated by the proliferation of flexible employment, the reinforcement of training and re-training courses, and efforts to make job recruitment more efficient at district labour departments.

The Minister pointed to the programme launched by the Government in Eastern Hungary, which aims to direct existing labour reserves into the private sector in a targeted manner through reorganising employment offices. “The number of people participating in the public work programme has decreased by 54 thousand over the space of a year, which means that thanks to the new measures, the number of people employed by the private sector in Hungary is continuously increasing”, he added.

Thanks to the doubling of accommodation allowances from 1 November 2018, three to four  times as many people have moved from public work and found jobs in the private sector in recent weeks, Mr. Varga stated. “In addition, continuously increasing wages are making public workers, inactive workers and job-seekers increasingly motivated to find employment on the primary job market”, he explained.

The Minister told the press that major progress has also been made with relation to the employment of women, with more women working on the Hungarian job market than ever before, but added that there remain tangible workforce reserves among women with small children, whom the Government will be helping with further incentives.

((Ministry of Finance))