Unemployment rate in Hungary has not been this high in three years

Unemployment has not been this high since 2017 June-September

Székesfehérvár, Hungary. Photo: MTI

134,000 fewer people were working in Hungary this May than in May 2019. An average of 190,000 people was unemployed between March and May 2020, resulting in a 4.1% unemployment rate. This is a 0.7% increase compared to the previous year. Unemployment has not been this high since 2017 June-September.

Data comes from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office.

Hvg reports that it is important to mention that many people who lost their jobs earlier this year were, for a while, qualified as “economically inactive” and not “unemployed” because they had no chance to look for another job in lockdown actively.

In Hungary, people get unemployed status only if they do not have a job but are actively seeking work and can start as soon as possible. In May, the number of inactive people decreased significantly, as most of those who had previously become unemployed began to look for work after restrictions were lifted actively.

May 2020

In May 2020, the number of unemployed people increased by 28,000 compared to the previous month.

In May 2020, the average number of unemployed people was 215,000, and the unemployment rate was 4.7%. In only one year, the unemployment rate rose by 1.2%.

Nearly one fifth of the unemployed belonged to the age group 15–24: 37,000 unemployed people resulted in an unemployment rate of 12.4%.

Out of the many economically inactive people, 31,000 started working, but 28,000 were unable to find a job in two weeks. The employment rate was 68.5%, up by 0.4% from April.

The average monthly number of employees was 4,399,000, which is 2.2% lower compared to May 2019.

Compared to April 2020, the number of people working in the domestic labour market increased by 34,000 while the number of people working abroad decreased by 3,000.