Economy 4 January 2013, 9:00am

Hungary employment rise slows down

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Although the number of employed people grew by 55,000 in September-November 2012 from a year earlier, there was a 10,000 decline over the preceding three-month period and the rate of unemployment also picked up. The 10.6% U-rate was the same as in the base period, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) has reported on Friday. Nearly half of those unemployed have been constantly seeking a job.

In September-November 2012, the number of employed people in the 15-74 age group was 3,925 thousand, 55,000 more than a year earlier. The increase was primarily due to the expansion of public employment, the stats office said.The number of unemployed people grew by 7,000 yr/yr to 468,000, but as a result of a rise in activity the jobless rate came in at 10.6%, unchanged from July-Sept 2011.

Although the level of employment is still considerably higher than a year earlier, it is evident that the end-year breaking mechanism kicked in. Seasonal employment tends to decline towards the end of the year and in view of the past years’ processes we can also say that public employment also diminishes. At the same time, we still see an erosion after seasonally adjusting the figures, which indicates that this may be the end of the road as for returning to pre-crisis levels in employment.

These processes are reflected in the change of activity too.

The KSH's figures are not surprising in light of the National Employment Service’s (NFSZ) recently published data, which showed that the number of registered jobseekers started to rise again in the autumn and that the number of new jobs (not subsidised by the state) is at a three-year low.

The NFSZ reported 536,000 registered jobseekers for November and the KSH stats showed 468,000 unemployed. 48% of unemployed people have been searching for a job for one year or more. The average duration of unemployment was 17.5 months.