Hungarian unemployment rate falls to 3.6%

Hungary’s three-month rolling average jobless rate reached 3.6 percent in February, edging down from 3.7 percent in the previous month and from 3.8 percent twelve months earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Thursday.

The rate covers unemployment among those between the ages of 15 and 74.

In absolute terms, there were 168,200 unemployed, 1,600 fewer than in the previous month and down 9,500 from a year earlier.

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group stood at 11.8 percent. The unemployed in this age group account for almost one-quarter of all jobless, KSH noted.

The unemployment rate in the 25-54 age group was 3.1 percent, and it was in the 55-74 age group 2.3 percent.

Out-of-work Hungarians spent about 13.7 months on average looking for employment during the period, and 37.8 percent of the unemployed had been seeking work for one year or longer.

The number of employed stood at 4,497,400 among 15- to 74-year-olds, 56,300 more than in the same period a year earlier. The employment rate was 60.6 percent, up 0.9 percentage point.

The number of employed included 125,500 Hungarians in fostered work programmes and 110,300 working abroad.

The number of those employed on the domestic primary labour market rose by 1.9 percent from a year earlier to 4,261,600, while the number of fostered workers dropped by 23.9 percent. The number of those working abroad went up by 16.2 percent.

KSH defines “employed” in line with International Labour Organisation standards as anybody who worked one or more hour a week or was temporarily absent from their job during the survey week. The data also include those employed in public work schemes and those working abroad for less than one year.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI