Overview of the labour market in Hungary 2023

In the past few years the labour market has changed a lot in terms of expectations for employees. Employers are looking for colleagues who are independent, capable or willing to take responsibility, and able to communicate assertively. This means that employees, regardless of their seniority, should be able to make their own decisions at their own level. They should be able to recognize the decision-making situation and assume the responsibility that comes with it. Don’t expect someone to tell you what to do every step of the way. By accepting the responsibilities that come with it in everyday life, a person takes a big step toward meeting this requirement in the world of work.

There are types of skills that have increased in value, such as agility and empowerment. Employers look at the availability, extent and combination of the skills sought during a selection process. We can identify what we need to improve on from formal and informal feedback.

What should our year 2023 be about, stick to our job or find a new one?

If there is a lot of uncertainty in other areas of life, then it’s only natural that in other areas, we want to be as secure as possible, and one of the possible means of this is not to risk our work and income. In the field of recruitment, it can be seen that the colleagues are more considerate about the change, even in an area such as technology.

If someone wants to change, they need to know the industry in which they would like to switch or where they want to go, for example how unstable the situation is in that industry. Software development has the highest demand for labour despite the fact that there are more and more alternative institutions providing training, so you can learn this profession not only at universities. In Hungary today, knowledge-intensive areas are attractive and prosperous. Such are technological services, software development and engineering. SSCs, manufacturing, machinery and automotive industry are also very labour-intensive and are expected to remain so in 2023.

At the same time as the developing areas, the structural shift appeared in the labour market. There are areas, such as software development, where there is a high demand for labour, but there are no colleagues with the right qualifications and experience. So, the need is elsewhere than the qualifications, skills and affinity of the employees. Structural unemployment leads to an oversupply of available unskilled labour seeking non-skilled jobs and not necessarily finding their way. As a result, skilled workers find jobs more easily.

In addition to manufacturing plants, the research and development area is also very intensively present in Hungary. A lot of research-intensive and technology-intensive investments are coming to Hungary. These investments are always long-term strategic decisions. It is the degree and level of language proficiency that is problematic in our country, even among qualified professionals. Unfortunately, in terms of language skills, we are not in a high place either at the regional or Western European level. Service centres can absorb almost unlimited employees who speak special languages or unusual language combinations. Speaking regional languages in addition to the major languages is a huge advantage in the labour market. Knowledge of languages is one of the breakthroughs in addition to technological knowledge.

Source: Self-developer Academy – online lecture: Emma Dongó economist, political scientist, international recruitment and HR consultant