According to the latest data by the National Labour Office, the number of registered jobseekers fell below 500 thousand in Hungary, Minister of State for Employment Policy Sándor Czomba said at the signing ceremony of a funding tender for job creation projects in Nyírkáta.
With the current figure Hungary’s labour market has reached the pre-crisis level of 2008, and within Europe only a very few countries were capable of achieving this result, Sándor Czomba stressed.
On the last June day which the statistics cover, 497 thousand people were recorded as jobseekers in the registry of the National Employment Service, which figure is 3.5 percent (18 100 people) and 5.2 percent (27 400 people) below the level of May and the corresponding period of the previous year, respectively.
The share of registered jobseekers within the economically active population was 11.2 percent, while the respective rate within the working-age population was 7.5 percent. According to statistics, in June 60 700 people were registered as career-starters, and their share within the total number of jobseekers was 12.2 percent. In light of data by the National Employment Service, the number of those who were on the registry for over one year – after a decrease of 2.3 percent was registered for the month -- was 164 600 on the last day of June which corresponds to a share of 33.1 percent within the total number of jobseekers. The proportion of unskilled people among registered jobseekers was 50.1 percent.
A lower jobless figure is insufficient in itself; good results must be underpinned by employment programmes, Sándor Czomba emphasized when speaking about the job creation tenders announced for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. As he said, this year the National Employment Fund had HUF 13bn to spend on this objective and it has been allocated as non-refundable grants to 1139 enterprises for establishing 6500 new jobs.
With regard to the number of bidders, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg was the most successful county, where 79 bidders won funding of over 1.5 billion forints, the Minister of State added. The subsequent investments will create 643 new jobs, but the scheme also helps retain 587 existing jobs. The TOMI-FA Kft of Nyírkáta, an enterprise producing and selling pallets, won HUF 39 million at the tender, and the company can thus add 15 registered jobseekers to its current payroll of 22. According to available data on the company, the net sales income of the enterprise was over HUF 111 million, while its balance sheet earnings totalled over HUF 2.3 million.
(Ministry for National Economy)
