Hungarian Companies Actively Recruiting Again

31% of Hungarian employers are planning to expand their current workforce in the third quarter of this year, while 18% are planning to reduce their workforce, Manpower Hungary said on Thursday, based on its labor market forecast.

ManpowerGroup conducted its quarterly survey among almost 39,000 employers in 41 countries around the world, asking a representative sample of 511 employers in Hungary about their recruitment intentions for the third quarter.

According to the release, the domestic job creation rate of 12% is a national average, with significant variations between sectors, with the largest increases expected in the IT, logistics and automotive, energy and utilities sectors. The lowest growth is expected in communication services, health and life sciences, and materials and manufacturing.

There are also significant differences between regions. The largest increases are expected in Central Hungary, the Northern Great Plain and Budapest, while in Western and Central Transdanubia, the number of redundancies is much higher than the number of new hires. In the Southern Great Plain, expectations are close to the national average, while in Northern Hungary and Southern Transdanubia, neither significant increases nor decreases are expected.

Larger firms were much more optimistic in previous quarters, but there is no significant difference by firm size for the next quarter, with all categories around the 12% average.

Tamás Fehér, Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Hungary and Croatia, said in a statement that the domestic labor market is expected to be well past the temporary low point of the first half of the year. The automotive sector is again showing a significant demand for labor, due to the wave of investment announced in the industry, while the manufacturing sector is expected to remain in a state of near stagnation, he added.