Over One-Third of Employers Plan New Hires in Q4

In the fourth quarter, 37% of Hungarian employers plan to expand their current workforce, while 13% anticipate a reduction; such a high level of positive sentiment among market participants has not been seen in the past five years, according to the results of Manpower Hungary’s labor market forecast released on Wednesday.

ManpowerGroup conducted its quarterly survey among nearly 40,000 employers in 42 countries worldwide; in Hungary, a representative sample of 525 employers was surveyed regarding their fourth-quarter hiring intentions.

The net employment outlook – derived from the difference between the number of companies forecasting an increase in headcount and those forecasting a decrease – reached an average of plus 24%, exceeding the previous quarter’s figure by 9 percentage points and the figure from a year ago by 16 percentage points.

Looking at individual sectors, it was found that workforce growth could be well above average in finance and insurance, the information technology sector, manufacturing, construction, and trade and logistics. Expectations in the automotive industry have improved significantly; 25% of companies in this sector now plan to increase their workforce, whereas in the previous quarter, employers considering layoffs were still in the majority.

By region, employers’ expectations are better than the national average in the Northern Great Plain, Western Transdanubia, and Central Hungary. In contrast, in the Southern Great Plain, Northern Hungary, and Central Transdanubia, the number of employers planning to increase their workforce is well below the average. In Budapest and Southern Transdanubia, however, more employers plan to hire than to lay off employees, at a rate around the national average.

By company size, intentions to increase headcount were observed across all categories; however, companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees reported plans to hire at a higher-than-average rate, while those with more than 5,000 employees plan to hire at a more moderate pace.

The survey also revealed that, over the past year, the number of employees remained unchanged at 34% of the responding Hungarian companies compared to 12 months earlier, while 24% reported a reduction in headcount and 42% reported an increase.

Compared to the previous quarter, the outlook for labor market trends improved by 2 percentage points internationally, with the index standing at 29%. No decline is expected in any of the 42 countries surveyed. In Europe and the Middle East, expectations fall well short of the global average, while employers in India, Brazil, and Mexico anticipate the largest increases in workforce size. ManpowerGroup has been conducting its Employment Outlook Survey four times a year since 1962.