This year the industry can be the engine of job creation

According to K&H’s latest SME confidence index, the majority of Hungarian businesses plan to continue working with the same number of employees in the next 12 months. Viktor Zoltán Kovács, the head of K&H Bank’s SME marketing division told our magazine only 19 percent of SMEs wish to recruit new workers. The good news is that only 1 percent of companies plan to lay off employees.

13 percent of micro-enterprises want to recruit new workers, but this proportion is 27 percent in the case of medium-sized businesses.

42 percent of SMEs are preparing to increase salaries, on average by 4.6 percent. Those working in the industrial sector have the biggest chance for earning more this year (53 percent), while the salary raise is least likely in agriculture (29 percent). The average salary increase will be 5.5 percent in the industry, 5.2 percent in retail trade, 4.3 percent in services and 3.4 percent in agriculture.