Farm jobs increased by 12,000 while 10,000 jobs were added in commerce, he noted.

Czomba emphasised that the employment rate is at a 22-year high, with than four million now in employment. Éva Kurucz, the government’s spokeswoman, said that the rise in the employment rate meant “we have taken another step towards defeating poverty”.

The three-month rolling jobless rate in Hungary was 7.1% in August- October, down from 7.4% in July- September, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said.

This compares with 9.8 % August-October a year earlier. The number of unemployed averaged at 319,400 in August-October. The figure was down 13,200 from the previous three-month period and down 114,300 from the same period a year earlier, KSH said.

Analyst Péter Deáki of Buda-Cash said the improvement was positive but fostered job schemes continued to make a substantial contribution. Senior analyst András Balatoni of ING Bank said labour demand had started growing in the private sector as well as labour intensive sectors such as the construction industry in the first half of this year. He noted that fostered job schemes were also extensive, with around 200,000 people involved in these programmes.

Raising the number of fostered workers by another 50,000 next year could trigger wage inflation, Balatoni said, warning against keeping labour demand artificially high at this phase in the economic cycle.

Commenting on the data, the economy minister said economic growth of the recent period and lower taxes on labour had sown the seeds of higher employment.

Consequently, the number of employed will soon reach 4.2 million, Mihály Varga insisted, noting at the same time a major rise in the employment of women (currently 1.9 million).

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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