The government remains committed to full employment, with a primary goal of increasing real wages, in addition to protecting jobs, State Secretary for Employment Sándor Czomba stated at a press conference in Budapest last Friday.
Sándor Czomba added that based on the latest data, nearly 4.8 million people are employed in Hungary, and the unemployment rate stands at 3.8 per cent, well below the EU average. The data reflects that the Hungarian labour market remains tight, and employment is in good condition. He pointed out that since 2010, the number of employed individuals has increased by one million, as a result of job protection and job creation programmes.
Among the measures of the current economic defence action plan, the state secretary highlighted that over 5000 businesses will be freed from excessively high fixed-price electricity contracts, improving their competitiveness.
The government has set a net price of 200 euros/megawatt-hour for companies engaged in the manufacturing industry, accommodation services, warehousing, and transportation. Above this price cap, from 1 July to 31 December 2023,
the government will subsidise electricity costs, providing a total assistance of around 40 billion Hungarian forints to over 5000 companies,
offering almost 8 million forints support per business, said Czomba. He also praised the entrepreneur support programme that started on 1 August, which facilitates the establishment of more than 1000 new businesses.
According to the state secretary, the increased Széchenyi Card Investment Programme, alongside the Baross Gábor Industrialisation Loan Programme, significantly supports companies’ financing and thus contributes to further employment growth.
Czomba also called attention to the summer student work programme, which he considered successful as the number of participants increased from the planned 26,000 to over 28,000.
Related articles:
