MSzP MP: KSH employment figures “don’t correspond to reality”

Burány was quoted in local news outlet Népszáva as explaining that KSH has recently been buffing up employment statistics, including classes such as illegally-employed workers, the very temporarily employed (“even for one day,” said Burány) and those working in border towns outside of Hungary.

Burány went on to describe the “cosmetic” nature of KSH’s employment rate summary and cited as a counter-example the losses of private sector jobs numbering “several tens of thousands” since 2010. The MP also mentioned without specifics that more and more are working illegally in Hungary.

For what it’s worth, then, key statistics for employment in the September-November 2013 period according to KSH included the following.

• The number of employed people was 4.012 million for the three months, up 87,000 for a 2.2% increase year-on-year;

• of the employed, 3.979 million were 15 to 64 years old, representing an increase of 88,000 y.o.y. and a 1.5% increase in rate to 59.6%;

• employment among 15- to 64-year-old males increased 2.0% y.o.y. to 65.7% while the rate among women was up 1.0% to 53.7%; and

• the number of employed people among KSH’s “prime working age” class, i.e. 25- to 54-year-olds, increased 1.3% y.o.y. to 76.7%.

The expanded tables from KSH show an overall increase in employment among those of working age in Hungary from 49.3% for May-June 2010, the first complete period after the MSzP-KDNP coalition’s sweeping victory in the 2010 parliamentary elections. However, one may wish to heed Burány’s advice and get that grain of salt ready for the taking…