In April, the government will launch the Youth Guarantee Plus programme, aimed at facilitating the employment of individuals under 30, with a budget of 200 billion forints, announced State Secretary for Employment Policy at the Ministry of National Economy (NGM) Sándor Czomba during the Tuesday morning broadcast on M1 channel.

‘In Hungary, the activity rate is in the top third of the EU, but this ratio is approximately 10 percentage points lower than the EU average for the under 30 and over 55 age groups,’ he said, emphasizing the need to strengthen activity in these groups and assist young graduates in entering the labor market.

‘The Youth Guarantee Plus programme is built on three pillars: wage subsidies, rental and travel cost contributions,’ he explained. ‘The state will cover 50 per cent of the employee’s salary for four or six months. If the workplace is more than 60 kilometres away from the place of residence, rental support up to 70 per cent of the minimum wage, or 180,000 forints, can be requested under the programme. Within a sixty-kilometre radius, travel expenses of 10,000 forints per 10 kilometres will be provided,’ the state secretary outlined.

Czomba also mentioned in another interview on public Kossuth radio that the programme also includes support for training providing marketable skills. According to the government’s plans, the 200 billion forint programme could help approximately 84,000 young people find employment between 2024 and 2029. Within this, 60,000 to 70,000 individuals could benefit from wage subsidies, and 25,000 to 30,000 from training,’ he stated.

The state secretary stressed the importance of providing labour market experience to the approximately 23,500 registered job-seeking youths under 25 as soon as possible.

He added: ‘The number of registered job-seekers is approximately 240,000, in addition to which, the number of passive inactive individuals reaches 60,000, and the government aims to support the integration of this group into the labour market as well. Plans are underway for similar support targeting those over 30, similar to the Youth Guarantee Plus programme.’

Details of the ‘Youth Guarantee Plus’ programme can be found on the official website.

While the government programme is promising in boosting employment, it is imperative to notice that in the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the average unemployment rate in January, according to provisional data, was 4.8 per cent, which is a decrease compared to December‘s 4.9 percent, as stated on the organization‘s website on 14 March. In OECD countries, the number of unemployed has decreased for the third year in a row last year, averaging 33.23 million, the lowest since data handling in 2001. In 2022, the average number of unemployed was 33.96 million. The unemployment rate was 4.8 per cent last year, down from 5 per cent the previous year. This means that even while unemployment rates are decreasing in the area, the Hungarian government is still committed to further employment. The programme targeting individuals under 30 is another one in a long line of government programmes that help young citizens in conquering the beginning of adulthood.

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Sources: Hungarian Conservative/NGM/OECD