Hungary’s rolling average three-month unemployment rate reached 3.8 percent in October-December, which dropped from 4.4 percent in the same period the previous year.
According to figures released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH), the rate covers unemployment among Hungarians between the ages of 15 and 74.
In absolute terms, the jobless number averaged 175,200 in October-December, down 2,300 from September-November and 29,800 fewer than in the same period a year earlier.
KSH said that the number of employed went up by an annual 0.8 percent to 4,447,000 during the same period.
Péter Cseresnyés, state secretary of the economy ministry, said that Hungary’s jobless rate stood at 11.6 percent before the current government took power in 2010. Today more than 700,000 people have a job compared with seven years ago.
Cseresnyés attributed the increase in employment figure to Hungary’s economic growth, the government’s centrally funded job protection scheme and EU funded youth employment guarantee scheme.
The economy ministry said in a statement that Hungary’s unemployment had continued to drop over the past 66 months to a record low of 3.8 percent in October-December 2017.
The statement added that employment-boosting reforms including payroll tax cuts, economic development schemes and a substantial increase in minimum wages were largely responsible.