Sándor Bodó, State Secretary at the Innovation and Technology Ministry, has revealed Hungary’s employment rate in the first quarter of 2021 grew the fastest in the European Union.
According to MTI, the state secretary added that this was a sign of the government’s successful crisis management during the pandemic. Commenting on Eurostat data released on Wednesday, Bodó said the number of jobholders in Hungary grew by 1.1 percent quarter on quarter from January to March. Hungary was the only country with a growth rate above one percent in the EU, where overall employment edged down by 0.2 percent, he said.
The state secretary added that the government’s measures to protect the economy have helped some 1.6 million people in the past two years. The wage support program alone has preserved or created some 500,000 jobs. The government’s revamped workforce support scheme, launched earlier in June, offers HUF 600,000 (EUR 1,700) in government support each month for half a year to companies employing people out of jobs for more than a month beforehand. Self-employed workers in hard-hit sectors are now entitled to one-off aid of HUF 219,000, he added. Over 4.5 million people are currently employed in Hungary, and the number of jobseekers has fallen by 100,000 compared with the highest numbers last summer, he said.