Since the regime change, the number of working people has not been so high in Hungary, and the largest job growth was observed in the private sector, Minister of State for the Labour Market and Vocational Education Péter Cseresnyés said at a press conference in Budapest.
Speaking of the latest labour market data released by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), the Minister of State said that there were 4 million 414 thousand people in employment in the period September –November 2016, up by 705 thousand compared to the corresponding period of 2010. The employment rate has improved from 54.6 percent in 2010 to 67.5 percent, and thus the Hungarian indicator beats the EU average, he added.
The unemployment rate has continued to decline and reached 4.5 percent in the period September-November 2016, and this figure places Hungary as third in the EU ranking, behind Germany and the Czech Republic, he noted.
The youth unemployment rate, gauging joblessness among those aged 15-24 years, fell from almost 30 percent in 2010 to 11.8 percent, while the respective employment rate rose to 29.2 percent.
Improving labour market indicators are the result of the economic environment of recent years and, more importantly, employment policy measures introduced by the Government, Péter Cseresnyés pointed out. Among these, the Minister of State mentioned that the Job Protection Action assisted 920 thousand people to get and keep a job, as HUF 140-150bn was left at employers.
As a whole, employers could keep more than HUF 470bn more since 2013 for employing underprivileged people, he stressed. Through another programme which eases the transition from public work schemes back to a private sector job 4400 people were hired by the primary labour market. Housing allowances were successful, as these contributed to the accommodation expenditures of 6500 employees.
Investment in the construction sector is not being jeopardized by the shortage of labour, he said, as experiences in recent years show that the sector has always responded quickly to challenges and found sufficient labour. Employers are aware that employees can be retained or hired through (higher) wages, and this is expected to drive real wages higher. Potential labour shortages may be addressed by re-training and stimulus measures and thus 50-60 thousand vacancies could be filled with people out of a jobless pool of 200 thousand.
(Ministry for National Economy)
