During the first two months of the year the workforce was up by 38 thousand people compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 3,797,000. 2.7 million people were employed by private ventures of ate least 5 people or by public institutions. According to the labor survey of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office the number of unemployed was down to 279 thousand – the National Labor Methodology Center had 428 thousand registered unemployed in its files -, and so the unemployment rate for the first two months of 2000 fell to 6.8% from the 7.4% of the same period of 1999. 49% of the unemployed have been seeking employment without success for more than year. The average length of unemployment is 16.4 months. Employment in the private sector rose 1.5%, at the same time it was down 7.1% in the public sector. The average gross income reached 79 thousand HUF – 109 thousand HUF among professionals and 56 thousand HUF for physical workers. The gross income of professionals employed in the private sphere rose more than 16%, the same for public sector employees was only 6.4%. The gross nominal average income of full-time employees was 13.3% than the year before. Net incomes rose 11.2%, real income was up 1.2%.
The promising employment trends that began at the end of 1999 are unlikely to change course before the end of the year. The number of employed could go up by 1.5%. Regional and county-specific differences will not spread any further although certain smaller localities could be hard hit by employment difficulties of the agricultural sector.
