Hungary jobless rate rises in Q4 2007

According to Central Statistics Office, Hungary's rate of unemployment ticked up to 7.7% year on year.

Hungary's rate of unemployment came to 7.4% on average in
2007, down by 0.1 percentage point from 2006. The KSH said the number
of unemployed was 327,800 and the number of employed totalled
3,909,400 in the period examined. According to data provided by
Eurostat, the statistics agency of the European Union, the harmonised
jobless rate was 6.8% in the EU-15 and 6.9% in the EU-27 in November.

The labour market activity of the Hungarian population aged 15-74
was 54.9% in the last quarter, the jobless rate for the 15-24 year
old, representing 18.6% of all unemployed, was 19.2, down 0.3 ppts
from the same period last year. The KSH said 45.8% of all unemployed
have been seeking jobs for a year or more (unchanged from reading in
the previous 3 months). The average duration of joblessness came to
16.7 months.