We mainly look for jobs on job portals, less and less on social media.

 Recession is less visible in physical job opportunities

Significant differences can be observed in the job market when broken down by sector. According to Profession.hu data, the decrease in the number of job advertisements is less pronounced in the case of physical jobs than in intellectual areas. White-collar jobs have seen an average decline of 8 percent, while the number of applications has increased by 9 percent compared to the previous year. In contrast, in manual jobs, the decline in advertised positions was only 2 percent, and in the construction industry this ratio was even smaller, only 1 percent.

In intellectual jobs, there are more significant differences by sector: the largest increase can be observed in the pharmaceutical industry, where the number of advertised positions increased by 18 percent, while in the HR field, for example, the decrease was 11 percent compared to the first eight months of this year and last year.

“In addition to past and present data, many people are already preoccupied with the prospects for 2026 at this time of year. According to recent research by Profession.hu, Hungarian companies are approaching 2026 with similar expectations as they did for this year last year. This year too 46% of them said they expect an improving economic situation, while the proportion of those who are settling for stagnant conditions increased from 30% to 34%. One of the pillars of our recruitment efficiency is a thorough knowledge of market trends. It doesn’t matter which segment or location we are talking about, it is always worth looking beyond the overall average. That is why we created our product called Job report, which helps you to thoroughly understand the related supply and demand trends for each position – and we provide our corporate clients with free access to this

– said Imre Tüzes, Business Development Director of Profession.hu.

How do we look for a job?

The employee page was particularly active last year also, this was strongly catalyzed by inflationary pressure at the time. Job search activity, however, was able to increase even from the previous year: 8 percent for blue-collar jobs and 9 percent for white-collar jobs.

The way of searching for work has shifted towards job portals over the past year, while the role of other channels has declined in this regard. Research conducted in the third quarter of 2024 and 2025 showed that the frequency of use of job portals increased by 8 percentage points among active job seekers. In parallel, job searches on various social media sites are in decline: the frequency of use of such platforms has decreased by 6 percentage points among the aforementioned group.