Summer sees turnaround in domestic labor market

Between May and July, the number of people in employment rose to 4.680,000, breaking a downward trend that had lasted for almost six months. Employment returned to the level seen at the beginning of the year.

Compared to previous months, we see an increase of 20,000 in the number of people in employment, but on an annual basis, 30,000 fewer people are working, which indicates both a decline in the working-age population and a stagnant economic situation.

Even when adjusted for those temporarily working abroad (105,000 people) and public workers (69,000 people), the situation is better than it was in the spring. According to Portfolio's calculations,

more than 4.5 million people are once again working in Hungary's primary labor market.

At the same time, the number of unemployed people also decreased compared to a few months earlier. The number of unemployed people was 212,000, and the unemployment rate was 4.3%.

Seasonal effects (seasonal work) also help employment in the summer, but even so, it is particularly good news that the unfavorable trend that has lasted for months has been broken.

• The number of unemployed men was 113,000, while the number of unemployed women was 100,000.
• The rate was 4.3% for both genders, which was practically the same as the figure between May and July of the previous year.
• The average duration of job search was 11.5 months,
• with 42.5% of unemployed persons searching for a job for less than 3 months,
• while 29.2% had been unable to find work for at least a year.

Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images