Hungary’s unemployment rate among best in EU

The unemployment rate of two western Hungarian regions was among the lowest in the European Union in 2021, with youth unemployment among the lowest in three regions, the technology and industry ministry said on Wednesday, citing Eurostat data.

The unemployment of 15-29-year-olds has fallen by 12.8 percentage points in Hungary since 2010, ten times the EU average of 1.3 percentage points, the ministry said. The decline is second only to Lithuania’s, the statement said.

Youth unemployment was below 5 percent in 2021 in Hungary’s central and two western regions, down from around 30 percent nationwide in 2010, the ministry said. Unemployment in the total population in the western Hungarian regions was at 2.1-2.2 percent, it said.

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Zsolt Kutnyánszky, the state secretary for industry and labour market, said Hungary’s employment rate was at a record high in the summer of 2022. “This was the first time when the number of jobholders in Hungary was over 4.7 million in three consecutive months,” he said.

The subsidy scheme for regional workforce support for companies has supported the employment of 8,700 people, with over 3,000 of them under 25, he said. “That age group will find working even more worthwhile, as they will be exempt from paying a personal income tax from the beginning of next year,” he added.