Economy 28 November 2025, 9:25am

Fewer people are employed in Hungary than a year ago

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The number of people employed in Hungary has declined on an annual basis, with fewer and fewer people working in the primary labour market.

Between August and October this year, the average number of people in employment (aged 15–74) was 4,672,000, 31,000 fewer than a year earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported on Friday.

Of these, 4,493,000 were employed in the domestic primary labour market, which was 45,000 fewer than in the same period last year.

There were 223,000 unemployed persons, giving an unemployment rate of 4.6%. On average, job seekers spent one year (12 months) looking for work, with 44.9% having been unemployed for less than three months and 32.6% for at least a year.

In Hungary, the economic slowdown has coincided with the start of a decline in the working-age population. The number of people aged 15–74 fell by 70,000 in one year, which will put further pressure on employment in the near future.

Overall, it is evident that the model of economic growth based on employment is reaching its limits due to demographic constraints.

If the economy were to recover, the unemployment rate could fall to 3–3.5%, meaning 60,000–70,000 unemployed people could find jobs within a few years. However, it is unlikely that unemployment would fall any further than this, as this would reflect full employment, as seen before the Covid crisis.

Furthermore, although the country has already made significant progress in this area, inactivity can be reduced to some extent. As the figure below shows, the number of active people has not increased much in recent years. In fact, due to demographic constraints, a slight decline is already evident.