Nearly a Third of Domestic Firms to Increase Staff

In the first quarter of next year, 31% of domestic employers plan to expand their current workforce, while 21% expect to reduce it. Jobseekers can expect a brisk demand for labor in this period, especially in IT, financial and real estate companies, according to a labor market forecast published by Manpower Hungary on Tuesday.

There are significant differences between regions. Employers in the Southern Great Plain (+21%) and the Northern Great Plain (+17%) are expecting the largest increases, but employers in Central Hungary and Budapest (+13%) and Northern Hungary (+11%) are also expecting above the national average. However, more employers expect to lay off workers than to hire in the regions of Transdanubia (-8%), while in the rest of the West of the country neither a significant increase nor a decrease is expected.

There is also considerable variation by sector, with the largest increases expected in IT (+39%) and finance and real estate (+29%), but above-average job growth in communication services (+17%), logistics and automotive (+17%) and materials and manufacturing (+13%). The smallest increases are expected in health and life sciences (+3%), consumer goods and services (+2%) and energy and utilities (0%).

When grouping responses by firm size, small and medium-sized firms are significantly more optimistic than firms with more than 1,000 employees.

ManpowerGroup conducted its quarterly survey of more than 40,000 employers in 41 countries around the world, with a representative sample of 525 employers in Hungary.