Employment and education

Significant changes in the Hungarian labour market occurred in the 1980-2001 period, with a change in the employment structure as an expression of demand for labour. The proportion of direct production occupations (in industry and agriculture) significantly decreased, and producer and consumer service occupations came to the fore. Meanwhile the average level of education was rising, especially the years of schooling completed by the lowest education groups. Turning to presumed reasons for this, no significant correlation could be shown between technical development and labour-market changes, while the correlation between these effects and years of schooling was negative, so that their effect it was not great. There is no proof for the assumption that the rise in education level can be explained either by technical development or by structural change. It seems rather to be an autonomous process independent of these.