The government’s public employment policy is successful, equally for local governments in the public employment system, society and workers, the Minister of State for Local Governments at the Ministry of Interior stated on Tuesday in Budapest.

Tibor Pogácsás, who handed over awards to the employers of the 2018 public works programme, stressed that the programme is useful for society because through it every family can appreciate that work is necessary for advancement, and those who fail to find jobs on the primary labour market can lead their everyday lives in a community again.

At the same time, the intentions of both the government and local governments coincided in the programme, he added. The Minister of State pointed out that at the beginning of the 2010s when unemployment was high in Hungary, the goal was to provide temporary job opportunities for the unemployed to enable them to earn a living.

However, in the wake of the government’s economic policy measures, the level of employment has increased significantly as some 4,420,000 people are in employment in Hungary today. In consequence, the number of people employed in public works schemes has decreased, and today there are only 122,000 people working in this form of employment throughout the country monthly on average, he said. This means, he continued, that in response to the country’s economic growth, a turnaround has taken place on the labour market: today there is ever keener competition for work force, and public employment, too, is beginning to struggle with a shortage of labour. However, public employment – partly as a social and partly as a community building activity – cannot be entirely removed from the Hungarian employment system as there will always be people who are in need of the community’s help, Mr Pogácsás said.

At the ceremony 73 employers – primarily local governments – received awards for organising public works schemes in an exemplary manner.

(MTI/Ministry of Interior)