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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Hungary Unemployment September 2007

Now here'¡s another piece of data I'm having trouble interpreting. According to the Public Employment Service (ÁFSz), in September the number of job-seekers registered was 415,800, 37,500 higher than a year ago, but 1,421 lower than in August. This seems to suggest that both the economy is slowing and the number of unemployed is declining, which is strange to say the least.

According to the BBJ

The number of first-job-seekers grew 1.1% year on year to 45,439. The numbers reflect the layoffs in the public sector, since it is the Central Hungary Region that saw the largest increase, said ÁFSz chief director Károly Pirisi. Also, the growing number of the underprivileged in the system makes the statistics even worse – as they have even more trouble finding jobs, he added.

The ratio of unemployment in the Central Hungary Region is 3.5%, in North Hungary 17.3% and in the North Alföld Region 16.2%. Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County registered the highest number: 20.6%. The employers reported 27,000 new unsubsidized jobs in September, 17.9% less than a year ago, mainly for unskilled workers, offering a Ft 84,100 gross salary.

Well, I will get to the bottom of all this eventually, but here is the chart just so you can see for yourself.


1 comment:

Antal Dániel said...

There have been a great number of layoffs in the public sector in the past 12 months. Since civil servants have a well-protected special labor status, they usually have an extra 6 month till they actually become unemployed. During that period the employer must try to find a similar job. People whose jobs were closed down on 31 Dec became statistically unemployed on 1 July. Many chose early retirement plans, etc. The effect of the layoffs in the civil service, which originally aimed to reduce the size of public sector jobs by 10% is huge and shows in the statistics with a very confusing time-lag.