Magazine: Who is going to work?

One of the biggest challenges in Europe is to have more people working. At a professional forum organised by the National Trade Association (OKSZ) at the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK), experts analysed the workforce situation in retail trade. Péter Cseresnyés, secretary of state at the Ministry for National Economy told in his presentation that Hungarian workers aren’t as qualified as they should be. He revealed that the EU wants a 75-percent employment rate by 2020 in the 20-64 age group.

Hungary needs to make great efforts to achieve this goal: 4.5-4.6 million people will have to work and at the moment we are around 4.2 million. The problem is that a large number of workers with low qualifications will have to be given a job. Economic incentive plans are needed and the government also plans to start a programme that would finance job creation.

Ákos Kozák, managing director of GfK Hungária Kft. spoke about the more than 10-percent salary increase in the retail sector in 2016 – in a period when retail sales expanded by 5 percent. In the four and a half years up to early 2016, gross wages in the sector increased by 18.5 percent. In the business sphere this average was 27.5 percent and the rise was 36.6 percent in the budgetary sector.

GfK made interviews with 9 experts and 260 companies about the workforce shortage, and they found that the following factors affect the healthy workforce management of businesses: the lack of qualified workers, labour force shortage, people going abroad to work, low salaries, working on Sundays, work conditions, transportation and accommodation problems. 38 percent of respondents said they will recruit new workers this year. At the moment about 30,000 workers are missing from retail. /