Labour shortage: Budapest police missing more than 300 foot patrols
Budapest police shared on a request to access data of public interest submitted by 24.hu that there are 1,223 foot patrol positions in Budapest, but there are only 920 patrols. Therefore, a quarter of the staff is missing which they try to solve with substitutions.
This means that even district commissioners, officers working in the motorway patrol department of the Budapest Police Headquarters, and members of the intervention police have to do the tasks of foot patrols – 24.hu reported.
There are only two districts in Budapest where there are only five officers missing: the 7th (Elizabethtown) and the 17th one. The situation is the best in Elizabethtown – where the so-called ‘party district’ of Budapest is – since there, 91 pc of the positions are filled. In the 2nd district, this rate is also high, at 85 pc.
It is in the 1st (Castle) district where the numbers are the worst. There are only 17 patrols for the 28 positions which means
a shortage of 40 pc.
In the 6th, 13th, 8th and 12th districts, these numbers are 36 pc, 35 pc, 36 pc and 38 pc respectively. In the case of the number of officers missing, the 8th district is in the worst position, with only 60 officers for the 93 posts.
The main cause of the shortage is low salaries. The average wage of foot patrols in Hungary does not reach 600 EUR, and even those who have
15-25 years of experience do not get more than 800 EUR.
Moreover, a beginner’s average salary is only 450-500 EUR. Because of that, many youngsters studying in law enforcement schools change their career the moment they graduate.
Furthermore, Népszava wrote before that applicants to Hungary’s four law enforcement schools have fallen by 75 pc in the last 5 years. In 2014, their number was 3,060 while in 2018, this number dropped to 1,715, and in 2019, it was only 880. It should be highlighted again that this is only the number of applicants and, according to data, 30pc of them fail to accomplish even the preliminary exam while many of them do not even show up for the exams.
As we already reported, Hungary struggles a lot with labour shortage which
affects almost every sector of the economy.
In fact, the most problematic sectors are public transport and service, tourism and IT. However, the issue also affects the public sector greatly. For example, a severe shortage of specialised teachers is present throughout Hungary, and in rural areas, more than a third of full-time jobs have not been filled. To make matters worse, even the shortage of doctors and nurses is getting worse.
Photo: Árvai Károly/kormany.hu
Source: 24.hu
Things are going to get worse in Hungary. The population is declining by about 60,000-70,000 people per year due to natural causes and emigration. Some projections show that by 2050 the population may decline from the current 9,700,000 to as low as 6,000,000. That will be a catastrophe for the economy as well as national security.