Hungary’s official unemployment rate dropped by 1.6% year-on-year to 6.1% ,in the period of December-February, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) reported. The number of jobless declined 71,000 to 275,000, the lowest level in 11 years.
In the period under investigation, the number of unemployed in the 25–54 age group fell by 1.4 percentage points to 5.5%. In the 15-24 age group, the jobless rate remained quite high, 14.2%, which is a drop of 4.8 percentage point in one year.
Data of the National Employment Service showed that the number of registered jobseekers was 367,000, a 14.9% decrease annually by the end of February.
The number of employed rose 117,000 to 4.24 million, as a result of 62,000 new jobs created in the private sector. Some 45,000 more people worked in the public work prammes. Data coming out of the labour market was better than expected, analysts said who expect the decline in the number of jobless rate below 6% in 2016. The number of employed rose more than half a million since the government took office in 2010 and has been over 4.2 million for the second straight year, the National Economy Ministry highlighted. The 6.1% jobless rate is the lowest in 11 years, they added.
