Hungary jobless rate falls to 3.3 pc in December

Hungary’s three-month rolling average jobless rate fell to 3.3 percent in December, down 0.2 percentage point from the previous month and 0.3 percentage point lower than twelve months earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

The rate covers unemployment among those between the ages of 15 and 74.

In absolute terms, there were 155,200 unemployed, 8,100 fewer than in the previous month and down 12,000 from a year earlier.

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group stood at 12.2 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

The unemployed in this age group account for more than one-fourth of all jobless, KSH noted.

Out-of-work Hungarians spent about 10.6 months on average looking for employment during the period, and 30.4 percent of the unemployed had been seeking work for one year or longer.

The number of employed stood at 4,519,600 among 15- to 74-year-olds, 38,300 or 0.9 percent more than in the same period a year earlier.

The employment rate was 63.0 percent, up 0.4 percentage point.

The number of employed included 108,200 Hungarians in fostered work programmes and 120,000 working abroad. The number of those employed on the domestic primary labour market rose by 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 4,291,400, while the number of fostered workers dropped by 17.9 percent. The number of those working abroad was up 8.6 percent.

KSH defines “employed” in line with International Labour Organisation standards as anybody who worked one or more hour a week or was temporarily absent from their job during the survey week. The data also include those employed in public work schemes and those working abroad for less than one year.