Wages in Hungary have been rising continuously, with a “six-digit hike in the pipeline in many areas of the private sector”, Sándor Bodó, state secretary at the innovation and technology ministry, told public news channel M1 on Tuesday. Bodó said the labour market was predictable and benefits linked to the minimum wage were also on the rise. The unemployment benefit as well as the minimum wage have been raised to a monthly 200,000 forints (EUR 561), while the retirement benefit and subsidies for labour market programmes have been raised by 20%, he noted. The state secretary also welcomed the continued tendency of growing employment, noting that currently Hungary had 4.7 million employed as against 240,000 registered job-seekers. He added, however, that in some sectors such as construction there was a labour shortage, while others such as tourism were still impacted by the pandemic.