“The government has provided assistance to a total of 270 thousand people via the job protection, research & development and job creation wage funding programs”, the Ministry for Innovation and Technology’s State Secretary for employment policy said at a press conference in Budapest on Tuesday.
Sándor Bodó highlighted that the duration of the job creation wage supplement is 3+1 months, and accordingly employers who submitted their applications on 31 August will be receiving this form of funding until late December, early January.
“The job creation wage funding has helped job-seekers find work, and in addition to 6 months of funded employment, the state also expects enterprises to employ people for a further three months within the framework of the program, meaning that if their employer submitted their application on Monday, people’s jobs will be assured until the early summer of 2021”, the State Secretary explained.
“Over 17 thousand enterprises applied for job protection wage funding before the 31 August deadline towards the employment of 205 thousand people; the total funding provided is 34 billion forints (EUR 95 million)”, he stated.
“Most applications for this form of funding arrived from the tourism and hospitality sectors, the processing industry and the retail sector”, he added.
According to Mr. Bodó, it is important to the government to support people working in the private sector within the field of research & development and innovation, in view of the fact that the jobs created within these fields will be determining Hungary over the upcoming years and decades. 1250 enterprises have taken advantage of the research& development wage funding program, as a result of which the government has contributed to the preservation of 22 thousand jobs within the field of research & development and innovation. The total sum of the funding providing exceeds 17 billion forints (EUR 47.5 million). Most applications arrived from the capital and from the country’s university cities.
35 thousand enterprises submitted applications for funding within the job creation wage supplement program, which has a budget of 55 billion forints (EUR 153.5 million), as a result of which employers were able to provide workplaces to 48 thousand people. The most applications within the framework of the program arrived from the retail, tourism and hospitality sectors, and from the construction industry.
According to the Ministry’s State Secretary for Economic Strategy and Regulation László György, the success of the job protection wage funding programs is indicated by the fact that even at the low-point of employment, Hungary still had the 4th lowest rate of unemployment within the European Union.
The fact that the number of registered job seekers has been falling for the 12th week in succession is also cause for hope, he added.
The State Secretary also spoke about the fact that the enterprise white paper will be published this week, which will provide assistance during the virus situation with relation to preventing the coronavirus epidemic, reducing risks, and maintaining the continuous functioning of enterprises.
“The government’s most important goal is for healthcare protection to be successful and for the Hungarian people to be healthy”, Mr. György emphasised.