Hungary’s three-month rolling average jobless rate reached 3.6% in February, edging down from 3.7% in the previous month and from 3.8% twelve months earlier, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said. The rate covers unemployment among those between the ages of 15 and 74. In absolute terms, there were 168,200 unemployed, 1,600 fewer than in the previous month and down 9,500 from a year earlier.
The employment rate was 60.6%, up 0.9 percentage point. The number of employed included 125,500 Hungarians in fostered work programmes and 110,300 working abroad. The number of those employed on the domestic primary labour market rose by 1.9% from a year earlier to 4,261,600, while the number of fostered workers dropped by 23.9%. The number of those working abroad went up by 16.2%.