Hundreds of thousands would work more outside of traditional frameworks: it’s not the lack of motivation, but the lack of flexibility

By: Trademagazin Date: 2026. 03. 20. 09:58

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Educated, multilingual, and often full-time workers form the backbone of the domestic flexible labor market (gig economy). Giggle’s latest research, which processes data from more than 160,000 domestic users, sheds light on a surprising fact: a significant portion of Hungarian employees would like to work more, not less – an average of 10 extra hours per week. However, the rigid framework of the traditional labor market does not allow this for many, so more and more people are turning to flexible platform work to create the missing financial security.

Giggle’s comprehensive analysis conducted between September 2025 and March 2026 – based on the responses of nearly 1,400 employees and data from hundreds of thousands of shifts – rewrites everything we thought about flexible (gig) work so far.

Economic lifeline: Daily survival and the portfolio career

The financial situation of Hungarian employees fundamentally determines their labor market behavior. The research revealed that 67.3% of respondents have no savings, and 42.5% have credit or debt. For them, an unexpected expense is a critical problem. For the vast majority of flexible workers, platform work accounts for no more than 10-20% of their monthly income, which represents an extremely healthy income supplement model. Based on the median wages at the end of 2025, working just 2 extra shifts per month could mean a 10% additional income, which for many is the dividing line between living from month to month and financial stability.

Flexibility is no longer a compromise, but an expectation: for 61.8% of respondents, extra income is the main motivation, but almost the same number (58.9%) also indicated freedom of time scheduling.

The stereotype has been broken: They are qualified and want to work more

A common misconception is that those who work flexible hours are low-motivated casual workers, suitable only for tasks that do not require qualifications, or students. The numbers clearly refute this:

84% of those who take up work on the platform have at least a secondary education (19% have a degree)
Almost half of them (48.3%) speak English and have a “B” category driving license
65.8% of respondents have a full-time job (full or part-time)
Although many are already active, 72% of respondents would like to work at least as much as they currently do and would take on an average of 10 extra hours per week: in practice, this amounts to 3-5 completely untapped hours per month working day per employee, which is a huge opportunity for companies struggling with labor shortages.

“The gig economy is not an escape from work, but a modern tool for diversifying income. In the West, the »portfolio career« is already common, where people build their salary from multiple sources in parallel. Our data also shows that 7 out of 10 employees have a long-term goal of maintaining flexible working”

– noted Ádám Birizdó, co-founder of Giggle.

What do employers gain? People in minutes instead of weeks

For companies struggling with labor shortages, traditional recruitment, which takes weeks, is often no longer a solution. The figures are radically different on the platform-based liquid labor market:

On the Giggle platform, an average of 8 applicants are received for an advertised shift
The first application arrives on average within 50 minutes
By involving flexible labor, companies do not pay for idle time: compared to traditional, in-house or hired labor – taking into account the recruitment costs incurred – they can achieve cost savings of up to 15-22%.

Full transparency and supply and demand also decide in terms of wages: in the hospitality industry at the beginning of 2026 Net hourly wages ranged from 2,000 to 4,300 HUF in logistics, from 1,700 to 5,000 HUF in trade, and from 2,000 to 4,000 HUF in retail, which means that a flexible worker can reach the national median wage on a monthly basis.

“We constantly hear from companies that there are simply no people, or what is even more common: that they have run out of good workers. However, our data proves that quality and motivated workers are indeed on the market, but they are invisible to them within the traditional, rigid framework. The company that is willing to think in shifts today and tra