Wage demands in Hungary have increased, with one sector showing outstanding results

Labour market trends have developed as expected in early 2025. The job market supply has continued to decrease, but the rate of decline has moderated. While the number of job advertisements fell by 6% between 2023 and 2024, this year shows only a 2.2% decrease compared to the previous year, according to Imre Tüzes, Business Development Director at Profession.hu.

With the reduction in open positions, the labour shortage problem has eased, although regional and sectoral differences remain visible. The average number of applicants per position has increased by 6% compared to the previous year, with significant variations across sectors. Job advertisements have decreased by 17% for engineering positions, 10% in banking, and 11% in customer service roles. In contrast, the pharmaceutical industry shows outstanding growth, with 56% more positions advertised than a year earlier.

High inflation has also raised wage demands

Employee wage demands have increased in virtually every sector. "There is currently significant wage pressure on employers in the labour market, with employees' average wage demands noticeably higher. There are only a few exceptions to this when broken down by sector," said Imre Tüzes.

Based on salary data in job advertisements, pharmaceutical industry salaries have increased by an average of 22 per cent. Business service centres and marketing and PR areas both show a 16 per cent increase.

The impact of inflation is strongly felt on both sides. Companies are recruiting more cautiously, while workers are increasingly seeking better-paying jobs due to rising living costs.

Why aren't companies hiring more people?

According to Profession.hu's corporate survey, 46 per cent of company executives are optimistic about the outlook for 2026, 34 per cent expect stagnation, and 12 per cent anticipate a deteriorating situation. The extremely strong wage pressure due to last year's high inflation has somewhat moderated, and experts believe this trend will continue next year.

Among recruitment difficulties, the problem of inadequate quality applicants remains the top issue, mentioned by half of the surveyed companies.

The second most common problem is excessive wage demands, also identified by nearly half of the companies.

Additionally, the proportion of employers who believe candidates often do not take the recruitment process seriously and disappear without prior notice has increased from 26% to 34%.

HR is overburdened and turning to AI

Due to the increased number of applicants, selection processes are also taking longer. According to Profession.hu's representative research, those who changed jobs in the past year took an average of five months to find a new position. This is 25 per cent longer than a year earlier.

Artificial intelligence-based solutions are gaining ground in the recruitment sector as well. For example, Profession.hu uses AI technology in several areas: ensuring content quality in advertisements, automatic text generation, and CV processing.

Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): Shutterstock