Hungary’s finance minister has revealed that the country's unemployment rate has continued on a downward trend for the 70th consecutive month.
Mihály Varga said that thanks to favorable economic and job market trends, the number of unemployed people has fallen to 177 000, one-third of the 2010 level.
The figure translates into an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent in the period February-April 2018, meaning Hungary has become the country with the fourth lowest jobless rate in the EU.
According to MTI, double-digit wage growth has been accompanied by a steady rise in the number of people in employment. The number of people with jobs has increased by more than 750,000 over the past eight years.
The minister revealed that Hungary achieved the largest rate of growth, 13.3 percentage points, in the employment rate since 2010, while the EU average was only 3.5 percentage points. Hungary’s employment target for 2020, which was to achieve the EU average, was achieved already in 2016.
Over the past one year, the overall number of people in employment rose by 67,000 while the private sector posted growth of 128,000. This has had a favorable impact on economic growth, the minister pointed out.
The number of people in public work schemes fell by 46,000, and that of people working abroad was down by 15,000.