Profession.hu: There are still many people applying for jobs, but the slowdown has already begun

Although the number of job advertisements decreased by 3.7 percent nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year, when examined by location, most counties experienced an increase. The number of advertisements jumped the most in Nógrád County, where companies posted more than twice as many job advertisements as a year earlier (110%). This is followed by Tolna County, where the increase was 38%, Somogy, where it was 28%, and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, where it was 27%. However, there was a decline in some regions: the number of advertised positions decreased in Budapest (-12%), as well as in Pest (-9%), Fejér (-9%) and Vas (-4%) counties.

Examined by industry, the number of open positions increased the most in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals sector nationwide: it increased by nearly 130% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. The area already led in this indicator in the previous quarter. This was followed by IT, programming, development with a 19% increase, and manual, auxiliary and trained jobs with an 11% increase. The largest decrease – similar to the third quarter – was shown by hospitality, hotel, tourism with 51%, followed by customer service, customer service, where the decline was 27%, and law, legal advice, where the decline was 26%.

In Budapest – similarly to the national trend – the largest decline was shown by hospitality, hotel, tourism (58%), and customer service, customer service (32%). The third largest decrease in this regard was in the field of manufacturing, production – here the decline was 22%.

In the case of job opportunities, the decreasing trend experienced during 2025 continued, while the number of applications continuously increased. In the fourth quarter, however, the latter fell significantly: by 16% compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year. Only two counties received more applications for available job opportunities in the last quarter of last year than in the previous one: in Nógrád (70%) and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok (2%).

In terms of industry, it can be observed that the number of applicants decreased in all but two. The two exceptions are the public administration and company management categories: the former showed an increase of 7% and the latter showed an increase of 6%. The largest decline was in the areas of law, legal advice (34%), customer service, after-sales service (32%), and IT, operations, telecommunications (22%).

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