Christmas shopping spree: companies pay incredible money to find employees in Hungary

They would give almost 1,500 EUR per month, even for people without qualification and language proficiency, but it is still hard to find anybody because of the labour shortage affecting all sectors of the Hungarian economy.

Of course, this is not surprising in the retail sector during the Christmas shopping peak, but now, companies are seeking not only shopkeepers but also many storekeepers and delivery workers. According to Penzcentrum, more and more enterprises hope that by putting wages first in their communication, they can find the workforce they need. 

Merchants regularly wait for the period between Black Friday (November 29th) and Christmas the most because – based on calculations –

Hungarians will spend almost 1,200 billion HUF (EUR 3.6 billion)

in just three weeks. However, it seems that they have to wait long queues because not only shopkeepers are missing from the retail sector but also delivery workers, packagers, and logistics people.

A lot of people are needed in the stores of Pest county during the whole year, but in the Christmas peak, demands are even higher. For example, in Alsónémedi, one can start even today in 2 shifts and for 1,465 HUF (EUR 4.5) per hour that can be amended by 100,000 HUF (EUR 300) as a monthly bonus. Therefore, the altogether sum one can take home is 220 thousand HUF (EUR 700) per month, which is quite good taking into consideration that a Hungarian teacher gets that money only after decades of teaching.

• Hungarian shops closing earlier due to labour shortage?
• Labour shortage in Hungary: More than 115,000 pensioners rejoin the labour force
• Enormous labour shortage at the Hungarian State Railways
• Labour shortage: hospital care unit closed because all the doctors are on summer holiday

In a Szigetszentmiklós store, the base rate is 276 thousand HUF (EUR 800) where workers can do a driver’s license for trucks for free, and by obtaining that qualification, they can get an additional 20 thousand HUF to their monthly wage. Based on the research of Penzcentrum, employers offering 3-400 thousand HUF (EUR 7-900) are not rare in the retail sector, but labour shortage is still big because many qualified Hungarians work abroad, in Western European countries for even higher wages.

Source: penzcentrum.hu