The minister’s optimism comes from his assessment of a study of the youth conducted by Kutatópont on behalf of the Hungarian government, but doesn’t completely match the picture suggested by the data.

The study, “Hungarian Youth 2016”, which is conducted every four years, shows that one-third of those aged 15 to 29 years would like to leave the country to study or work abroad. Among these, 83 percent consider going abroad for a period of years, and of them, 45 percent would like to stay abroad to live permanently. Among those who desire to move abroad, 69 percent would do so in search of a better living than they are able to achieve in Hungary, 35 percent of whom would leave to improve their financial situation, while 12 percent would leave because of political circumstances in the country.

Unemployment among Hungarian youth has gone down a couple of percentage points since the last such study was conducted in 2012, and inability to find a job sank from the second most serious problem for young people in 2008 to only the sixth most serious problem in 2016.

However, according to Kutatópont director Levente Székely, financial difficulties, poverty and economic insecurity cause problems for more than half of Hungarian young people, regardless of how confident they are in being able to find work. In fact, fear of becoming impoverished while working was the greatest worry faced by young people in 2016, who fear they won’t be able to get by on the wages they receive.

27 percent of survey respondents said they believed the economic situation in Hungary has improved in recent years, while 29 percent thought it had deteriorated. Most of those who believed it has improved were from Budapest and had completed higher education.
While many youth felt they would make a better living abroad, the study shows that they would be satisfied with relatively modest wages at home: 22 percent reported they would get by with a net monthly salary of under HUF 150,000 (USD 516), and more than half said they could subsist on less than HUF 200,000 (USD 688) per month.

Balog’s assertion that the youth are enthusiastic about child rearing is based on the average number of desired children reported by respondents: Hungarian youth want an average of 1.7 children, the highest number in 20 years. However, Székely says that willingness to have children is most heavily influenced by financial security, and suggests that the prevalence of insecurity among youth might lead to a lower birth rate than suggested by the data.

Additionally, young people are becoming less interested in marriage in spite of government campaigns promoting it. In 2000, 22 percent of 15- to 29-year-olds were married, a number which dropped by more than half to only 10 percent in 2016. Ratios of people in a relationship to those who are single did not change during that period, suggesting that marriage has indeed become less popular among young people.

The proportion of young people attending school has also been in steady decline, down from 46 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2012 to the present level of only 40 percent. While the decline could indicate that more youth are opting to work instead of engage in higher education, numbers show that those finishing vocational courses (which would prepare them to work in trades) increased to 19 percent, up only 2 percent from 2012, and that only 12 percent of Hungarian youth had completed a higher education program.

Finally, the survey shows that most Hungarian youth describe themselves, somewhat paradoxically, as moderate, liberal and right-wing. They are increasingly dedicated to democracy, with 55 percent responding that democracy is the best existing political system compared to only 40 percent in 2008.

Source: The Budapest Beacon

Republished with permission