The number of people employed in Hungary may have been 200,000 less than the official data

By: Trademagazin Date: 2020. 12. 09. 10:07

According to the employment data published on the basis of the labor market survey of the CSO, the number of employees increased from 3.7 million to 4.5 million, or 780 thousand, between 2010 and 2019. This is nuanced by the fact that during the same period, according to NAV data, the increase was “only” 570 thousand people.

One of the reasons for the discrepancy is that the labor market data of the CSO do not take into account the real number of Hungarians who emigrated. In 2019, according to Eurostat data, more than 450,000 Hungarians lived in European Union member states, while in 2010 “only” 190,000. 84% of emigrants were economically active. This means that more than 200,000 employees are not actually employed in Hungary. If we correct the data of the CSO with the number of economically active Hungarians living permanently in the EU, we get a number of employed people closer to reality (4.3 million people). This is supported by the fact that the employment calculated in this way was close to the number of earners of employment published by NAV almost every year.