Half of Hungarians Ready to Retrain, survey says
Nearly half of Hungarians are ready to retrain to find jobs in fields widely different from their expertise, according to an international survey conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, The Network, and profession.hu.
Fully 49 percent of Hungarians said they would be ready to retrain and another 47 percent said they would do it to retain their jobs. Over half of Hungarians working in retail, health care, telecommunications, and finance said they were open to training in another field.
According to the survey conducted between October and December last year, 36 percent of employees worldwide have suffered layoffs or reduced working hours due to the coronavirus pandemic. In Hungary, that figure was 32 percent, on par with Finland and Serbia, the statement said.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen initiated a proposal regarding the increase of minimum wages across Member States of the EU.
IT Minister: Minimum Wage Regulations Should Remain Member State Competency
Hungary accepts the European Union’s guidelines on the minimum wage but maintains that the issue should be regulated by the member states, László Palkovics, the innovation and technology minister, said after talks with Ana Mendes Godinho, the Portuguese labour and social affairs minister, in Porto on Friday.
At the talks ahead of the EU’s summit on social affairs, the ministers exchanged experiences on the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on the labour market, and discussed the concept of a European minimum wage, Palkovics told Hungarian public media.
Palkovics said Hungary saw the protection of workers as its top priority. Regulation of the minimum wage should be left to the member states, as they are best equipped to address the issue “in a sensible manner”, he said. The Hungarian minimum wage has grown by 128 percent between 2010 and 2021, a result that “couldn’t have been achieved by any o
Home Building Permit Issues Plunge in Capital, Jump Elsewhere
The number of home building permits issued in Budapest plunged in the first quarter while jumping in the rest of the country, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.
At the start of the year, the government slashed the VAT rate on home building to 5 percent from 27 percent.
Overall, number of home building permits issued edged down 1 percent to 6,946.
The number of home building permits issued in the capital fell by an annual 79 percent to 757 in Q1. During the same period, the number issued in county seats and cities with populations over 50,000 increased by 77 percent, to 1,721. The number issued in smaller cities grew by 82 percent, to 2,636, and the number issued in villages rose by 84 percent, to 1,832.
Finance Minister: 2022 Budget Targets 5.2% Growth, 5.9% Deficit
The government targets economic growth of 5.2 percent, with a deficit target of 5.9 percent of GDP and public debt of 79.3 percent, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said, presenting the 2022 budget bill to parliament on Tuesday.
Varga said the budget was aimed at relaunching the economy, supporting families, reintroducing the 13-month pension, providing tax exemptions for earners under 25, while further reducing the tax burden on employers and supporting investments that create jobs.
Fully 7,308 billion forints (EUR 20.3bn) is penciled in to restart of the economy, amounting to the biggest economic programme in modern Hungarian history, he said.