In Budapest on Wednesday, Minister of State at the Ministry of National Economy Péter Cseresnyés announced that since the change of government in 2010, the number of people in employment in Hungary has increased by 555 000. This increase mainly stems from the private sector, where 332 000 more people are in work than five years ago, he said.
The Minister of State analysed the labour market results of the past period at a press conference, saying that the employment rate has increased from 54.6 per cent to 64.8 per cent over the last five years, while the unemployment rate has decreased from 11.6 per cent in 2010 to 6.5 per cent today. The fact that the Hungarian reforms are working is clearly visible in the field of employment as well, Mr. Cseresnyés announced.
He added that the number of people in employment in Hungary now is at its highest level since the fall of communism. The Minister of State also announced that there are plans to launch the priority project entitled “Incentivising Social Enterprises” and the calls for proposals related to it at the end of 2015, with a dedicated budget of HUF 7.3 billion.
Mr. Cseresnyés also talked about the employment programme “Path to Employment” launched at the beginning of October, aimed at supporting job-seekers and inactive people under the age of 25. With the help of the programme, which is to run until the end of 2018, the prospects of approximately 96 000 people will be improved, the employment of almost 50 000 people in the primary labour market will be facilitated, and another 50 000 will be trained from an appropriated budget of HUF 102 billion.
According to the Minister of State, these employment results are due to the Government’s efforts to place the increase in employment in the focus of economic and social policy. He said that the Job Protection Action Plan launched in 2013 has assured a “so far unprecedented amount of support” for the employment of disadvantaged employees, through reducing costs related to employment. By August 2014, employers in the private sector had taken advantage of job protection allowances worth over HUF 310 billion. With the help of the action plan, 230 000 more disadvantaged people are employed in the private sector than were in 2013, Mr. Cseresnyés said.
(MTI)
