BUDAPEST: The Central Statistical Office (KSH) shows that the 3-month rolling jobless rate was 7.8% in January-March, up from 7.7% in December-February. The Jan-March jobless rate was down by 0.5% comparing to the same period a year earlier (8.3%).
The number of unemployed averaged 347,600 in January-March. The number of employed averaged 4,117,200. There were 3,083,100 economically inactive Hungarians during the period, down from 3,185,900 a year earlier. At the same time, the activity rate rose to 59.2% from 58%.
The employment rate for those aged 15-64 years edged up to 62.4 percent, while the employment indicators for both men and women have improved. The number of men in employment aged 15-64 years was 2 million 204 thousand; their respective employment rate increased by 1.8 percentage points to 68.3 percent. The employment rate of women has been 56.7 percent for six months now. Due to seasonal effects, employment usually shows a decline in the first quarter of every year, but in this regard, women bucked the trend, clearly owing to private sector job growth. The number of people in employment aged 15-24 years was 264 thousand, which shows that the employment rate improved by 1.3 percentage points, to 23.9 percent.
