The number of employees in Hungary’s business sector, which includes private as well as state-owned companies employing at least five people, fell 2.0pc in the twelve months to July, dropping for the eighth month in a row, data published by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) on Tuesday show.
The twelve-month drop slowed from 2.7pc in June and 2.2pc in May.
The number of business sector employees fell by 37,500 from a year earlier to 1,830,200 in July, but rose 14,300 from June.
Business sector employment started to decline yr/yr last December after steady year-on-year increase between May 2010 and November 2011.
January-July employment in the sector was down 1.8pc from a year earlier.
Business sector employment rose 1.3pc last year and rose 0.3pc in 2010, after falling 6.7pc on the economic crisis in 2009.
Total employment, which also includes employees in the public sector and at non-profit institutions, fell 18,100 or 0.6pc from one year earlier to 2,701,200 in July despite a sharp, 332,700 twelve-month rise in the number of people employed at public work programmes.
Excluding the budget-financed – so called fostered – work schemes, the number of public sector employees dropped 12,900 or 1.9pc in one year to 657,400 in July.
The number of those employed in fostered work programmes fell 1,500 from June but was still up almost 45pc from July 2011, to 106,200. The programmes were restructured, central budget appropriation was raised while wages were cut sharply this year.
Four-fifths of those employed in fostered work schemes worked full-time, similar to the past few months. The ratio rose from between 24pc in April-May 2011 to 57pc last December. It was about a two-third ratio in 2010.
The yr/yr drop in the number of employees in the non-profit segment, ongoing now for the third month, slowed to 0.2pc. Employment in the segment rose 1,800 from June, to 107,300.
The few segments of the economy seeing year-on-year rises in employment in July – agriculture (2.7pc), forestry (50.8pc), transport and storage (1.2pc), public administration (6.0pc) and health and social work (7.5pc) – were about the same as in the previous few months.
Manufacturing sector employment fell 2.7pc in the twelve months to July to 609,300 people, and it was down 1.8pc yr/yr in January-July. July employment was little changed in twelve months in the textile, oil refining and in the pharmaceuticals branches, and fell elsewhere except for a 4.4pc increase in vehicle manufacturing.
