Rising employment, but no economic recovery
January 21st, 2013Commenting on the latest employment statistics, a conservative economist points out that despite the good number of new jobs created, Hungary’s economic output has continued to decline.
It has been claimed that the US is going through a jobless recovery. In Hungary, on the contrary, new jobs are being created, but the economy keeps shrinking, Tamás Mellár writes in Heti Válasz. In an analysis of the contradictory figures available, the conservative economist explains that the unemployment rate has declined from 11,2 to 10,5 percent over the past two years, and more than 150,000 new jobs have been created. Mellár argues that these developments are the result of the massive public work scheme introduced by the Orbán government (see BudaPost July 19, 2011) and the fact that an increasing number of Hungarians are employed abroad. Despite the positive employment figures, however, the GDP shrank by 1.5 per cent last year, which suggests that the Hungarian economy has yet to find the path to recovery, Mellár comments.