Socialists: govt employment statistics ‘deceptive’

Budapest (MTI) – The government uses false statistical figures to “pull the wool over people’s eyes,” Nándor Gúr, deputy chair of the opposition Socialists, told a press conference on Sunday.

“Nothing has come of the one million new jobs” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pledged in the 2010 election campaign, but “600,000 Hungarians have left the country since to seek jobs abroad”, Gur insisted.

Hungary officially has 4.2 million jobs, Gúr said, but added that the figure includes some 150,000-200,000 positions filled by students, which was not included in the total number of jobs in the past. Additionally, it includes 200,000 people in public works programmes and 150,000 Hungarians employed in other countries, he said. Gúr concluded that the actual employed total was hardly 3.7 million, more than 500,000 below the number “hailed in government propaganda”.

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Gúr noted that people in public works programmes were earning a mere 52,000 forints (EUR 168) a month, and urged that the minimum wage should be raised to a net monthly 100,000 forints.

The Socialist politician repeated his party’s call for voters to stay away from the government’s upcoming quota referendum, and argued that the initiative was a “prelude” to Hungary’s exit from the European Union.

Source: MTI