The number of people in employment continued to stay above the 4 million mark, according to the flash report of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) published earlier this morning.

In November 2014-January 2015, the number of people in employment aged 15-74 years increased by 141 thousand, to 4 million 127 thousand, in comparison to the same period of the previous year. While thanks partly to Government employment schemes the weight of the private sector behind job growth has been increasing, public work programmes have -- albeit to a lesser extent -- also contributed to the improvement.

The employment rate of those aged 15-64 years improved over the past one year by 2.8 percentage points, to 62.5 percent. As far as the gender aspect of employment is concerned, indicators have improved for both men and women. The employment rate of men aged 15-64 years was up by some 2.7 percentage points year-on-year, to 68.3 percent. The number of women in employment was 1 million 903 thousand, up by 75 thousand year-on-year and up by 188 thousand compared to the level five years ago. Thus, the respective employment rate was 56.8 percent, constituting improvement of 2.8 percentage points in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year and 7.4 percentage points compared to data five years ago.

The employment rate of those aged 15-24 years edged up by 2.9 percentage points, to 24.6 percent, year-on-year. Accordingly, the number of people with a job was 274 thousand within this age group.

Concurrently, the number of jobless people dropped by 54 thousand, to 330 thousand, and thus the unemployment rate eased by 1.4 percentage points to 7.4 percent, year-on-year.

Favourable employment trends are having a positive impact on fiscal revenues and lifting household consumption and these in turn fuel economic growth. Recent macro-economic data point to further gains in employment.

For detailed data please go to www.ksh.hu

(Ministry for National Economy)