Hungary one of the fastest growing knowledge nations of Europe

The Geography of Europe’s Brain Business Jobs: 2022 Index, from ECEPR, with support from Nordic Capital, measures the share of the working age population across Europe employed in highly knowledge-intensive enterprises, in 31 countries and 284 regions.

Hungary one of the fastest growing knowledge nations of Europe

Since 2014, the number of brain business jobs in Hungary has increased by 41%. These are jobs in knowledge-intensive occupations, that are of essential importance in the modern economy. That places Hungary within the top-5 of fastest growing knowledge nations, ahead of countries such as United Kingdom, Malta, and even fast-growing Estonia.

Brain business jobs are important to fight unemployment

“We measure what percentage of the population in each European region is employed in brain business jobs, manufacturing industries, and professional services. These three parts of the economy are highly value-creating sectors. Our finding is that a region where 10 percentage points or more of the population, compared to the European average, work in these parts of the economy, on average have 2.2 percent lower unemployment”, explains Dr. Nima Sanandaji, director of ECEPR.

Read alsoPHOTOS: teachers, students and parents held a protest march in Budapest

Knowledge jobs are resilient to crises

“Knowledge is the foundation for attracting investments and creating value in a long- term sustainable way. Through the annual brain business jobs index, we keep an eye on the knowledge-intensive jobs of Europe. We find that these jobs are resilient against crises, and that regions with many brain business jobs tend to have considerably lower unemployment”, says Klas Tikkanen, Chief Operating Officer at Nordic Capital Advisors.

Budapest is the second leading brain business hub of Europe

Out of all 267 European regions, the Hungarian capital region of Budapest ranks as the region with the second highest concentration of brain business jobs. Examples of novel innovation firms, founded since 2016 in the region, include Craft, a software company, SignAll, providing automated translation, and Banzai Cloud, which offers cloud-native software for enterprises.

Hungary’s challenge

While Hungary overall has impressive performance in terms of knowledge-intensive jobs, growth of such jobs outside of the capital region is needed to boost the performance of the country as a whole and to lower regional unemployment levels.

Read alsoEvery fourth worker is Hungarian in this Austrian province

Brain business jobs are occupations within knowledge-intensive industries. The report is available on the ECEPR webpage HERE.

Source: ecepr.org