Published on: 29 August 2018

50 thousand more people in work than a year earlier

In the period of May–July 2018, the average number of employed people was 4,484 thousand, 50 thousand more than a year earlier. The employment rate of people aged 15–64 increased to 69.4%. The level of employment was higher among men than among women, but the rate of improvement was higher for women.

In May–July 2018, compared to a year before:

The number of employed people increased by 1.1% to 4,484 thousand. The increment in the domestic primary labour market was 92 thousand, while the number of people declaring to work in public employment decreased by 37 thousand, and that of those working at local units abroad changed within the limits of the sampling error.

Number of employed people aged 15–74, May–July 2018

Denomination Number, thousand persons Change in headcounta)
thousand persons %
Work in the domestic primary labour market4 217.192.22.2
Consider themselves public worker159.1–36.7–18.7
Work at local units abroad107.3–5.5–4.9
Total4 483.650.01.1

a) Compared to the same period of the previous year.

4,426 thousand of employed people were aged 15–64, and the employment rate of this age group grew by 1.1 percentage points to 69.4%. The number of the employed among men aged 15–64 increased by 0.5% to 2,414 thousand, and their employment rate rose by 0.7 percentage point to 76.3%. Regarding 15–64 year-old women, the number of the employed grew by 1.5% to 2,012 thousand, and their employment rate by 1.4 percentage points to 62.7%.

Among young people aged 15–24 years, the number of the employed decreased by 11 thousand to 295 thousand and the employment rate was 28.7%. The number of employed people increased both in the ‘best working age’, i.e. the age group 25–54 years and in the older, 55–64 age group, their employment rates grew as well, by 0.7 percentage point to 84.6% in the former and by 2.2 percentage points to 53.9% in the latter age group.

The employment rate of people aged 20–64 – the coverage regarding the development of employment objectives defined in the Europe 2020 Strategy – grew by 1.1 percentage points to 74.6%. The European Union targeted to raise the average employment rate to 75% by 2020; in Hungary, the employment rate of this age group is currently 82.1% for men and 67.2% for women.

Employment among 15–64 year-olds by age groups, May–July 2018

Age group, year-old Number Employment rate
thousand persons change, thousand personsa) % change, percentage pointa)
15–24295.3–10.728.7–0.5
25–543 439.743.284.60.7
55–64690.98.453.92.2
Total4 425.940.969.41.1
Of which: 20–644 398.837.674.61.1

a) Compared to the same period of the previous year.