Hungaryʼs three-month rolling average unemployment rate reached 3.4% in June-August, unchanged from the previous three-month period, but down from 3.8% twelve months earlier. At the same time, the employment rate among people aged 15–64 rose to 70.2%.
In absolute terms, there were 156,900 unemployed people aged 15-74 in June–August 2019, down 16,200 from a year earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported on Friday.
The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group stood at 10.3%. This age group accounts for more than one-fifth of all jobless, the KSH noted. The jobless rate in the 25-54 age group was down half a percentage point year-on-year to 2.9%, while the rate in the 55-74 age group was steady at 2.5%.
Unemployment among men aged 15–74 fell within the limits of the sampling error, with a jobless rate of 3.2%. Regarding women, the unemployment rate declined by 0.6 of a percentage point to 3.6%.
Out-of-work Hungarians spent about 14.1 months on average looking for employment during the period, and 37.4% of the unemployed had been seeking work for one year or longer, i.e. were classed as long-term unemployed.
34,000 more people in work
Meanwhile, figures released by the KSH on the same day reveal that the number of employed people stood at 4,517,500 among 15-74-year-olds in June–August, some 33,900 or 0.8% more than in the corresponding period a year earlier.
The number of those employed on the domestic primary labor market rose 1.4% from a year earlier to 4,290,900, while the number of fostered workers dropped 27.6% to 107,800. The number of those working abroad was up 13.3% to 118,800.
Employment among young people aged 15–24 years essentially did not change, with a rate of 29.0%. In the 25–54 age group, the employment rate was 84.4%, while in the older, 55–64 age group, the employment rate grew by 2.7 percentage points to 56.9%.
The employment rate of people aged 20–64 – the coverage regarding the development of employment objectives defined in the Europe 2020 Strategy – grew by 0.9 of a percentage point to 75.4%. The European Union has set a target of 75% by 2020; in Hungary, the employment rate in this age group is currently 83.2% for men and 67.7% for women.
