Labour market trends in grocery retail

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/8-9.

Dr. Tamás Kozák
secretary general
OKSZ

Aging workforce

According to GKI’s report, women make up two-thirds of the workforce in retail and this proportion has remained fairly stable since 2009. What is changing is the age composition of the workforce. Between 2009 and 2024 the number of 25-34 year olds decreased by 47,000 to 73,000 in the sector, while the number of 45-54 year olds grew by 28,000 to 105,000 and the number of 55-64 year olds rose by 19,000 to 53,000. In retail trade the average gross wage was HUF 557,000 in the third quarter of 2024. Since the first quarter of 2021 gross wages have increased by 64% in retail. Looking at the six largest food retail chains, we see that employee salaries are significantly higher in this group, with the average gross wage exceeding HUF 595,000 at the end of 2024 and certainly exceeding HUF 600,000 by now. According to the OKSZ survey, earnings are supplemented by non-wage benefits such as cafeteria, anniversary bonus, commuting allowance, 10-15% employee discount, SZÉP card allowance, 13th month salary, health insurance, etc.

Interventions are more harmful to small shops

As regards productivity, retail trade and finance/insurance have been the leading sectors over the past 10 years, with growth over 30%. During the period under review productivity growth exceeded the EU average. At the same time it is a warning sign that efficiency gains have slowed down quite a lot in the sector in the past 3-4 years. Retail trade is burdened by special taxes and specific sectoral interventions, but it has still managed to outperform several industries. Expert opinion is that the recent interventions such as the price caps and the margin freeze are also driving consumers towards modern retail channels instead of smaller chains, franchise networks and individual small shops. In the spring of 2025 18% of small shop owners planned to close one or more stores and this threatens the security of supply in many municipalities. GKI’s study and OKSZ’s own surveys suggest that retail – which is burdened by numerous government measures – could become an engine of the national economy.

Trade policy recommendations

Taking all these processes into consideration, the Danubia Fórum and OKSZ have formulated recommendations for the retail labour market: the government should work with retail trade to develop a comprehensive vocational training strategy, which prioritises digital skills; future training needs and the institutional framework for jobs requiring vocational training should be reviewed to better align with actual labour market needs; there may be serious reserves in atypical forms of employment.

Az OKSZ-cikksorozat a következő számunkban folytatódik!