Hungary's rate of unemployment dropped further to 7.0% year on year in the April-June period, from 7.3% in the previous three-month period and 7.5% in Feb-April 2007.
This level is the lowest in 2.5 years. Also:
"the number of unemployed was 296,900 and the number of employed totalled 3.943 million in April-June. The latter figure compares with 3.92 m in Mar-May. The number of unemployed dropped by 10,800 from the previous 3-m period and by 8,800 from the April-June period in 2006."
As can also be read off from the chart below, the most striking thing here is that the number of employed people is more or less stationary. In principle, given the weakening taking place in the economy this is good news, but it is also the measure of a historic lost opportunity, as global conditions being expressed across the rest of the EU8 are leading to rapid employment growth (and of course overheating). One thing the Hungarian economy isn't going to do in the coming months is "overheat" (despite the temperatures Daniel has been noting), au contraire, under-heating and the rapid arrival of an early winter are more the problem to hand.
Looking at the next chart (all courtesy of the KSH), the general recent evolution in economic activity is clear enough to see, and the evolution is not an especially good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment