There are probably very few industries in which firms were able to regain their pre-crisis profitability in 2010, but student cooperatives are definitely one, the Budapest Business Journal’s research on student work shows. In fact, business is booming: the eight biggest cooperatives which recruit students in Hungary increased their revenues in 2010 by a whopping 30% in comparison to the previous year.

The economical crisis, after causing a temporary halt, strangely seems to have set these businesses in motion. Market players think the dynamic growth is due to the fact that companies are reluctant to give up the cost saving operational mode adopted during the crisis. “Instead of re-hiring permanent employees, companies are turning to student work, which is easy to train, cheaper and more flexible,” László Marosi, the top local executive of the largest student cooperative network told the BBJ.

His firm, Meló-Diák, which operates a nationwide network, billed 6.3 million hours last year, achieving a revenue of HUF 4.7 billion, almost one third more than in the previous year. “The company has already achieved its pre-crisis levels,” he commented. This is mostly true for all of the largest players in the market, as only one of the top 10 cooperatives – Jobb Kezek Student Cooperative – struggled with shrinking revenues in 2010; one Miskolc firm, Diák-Meló achieved an 80% revenue growth in 2010, reaching HUF 420 million. This is probably due to the revival of Hungarian industry, as the firm mostly specializes in industrial jobs.

Student cooperatives have had several good years as the number of university students remained high despite the introduction of tuition fees and there was no shortage of firms seeking cheap, but well-educated workers, either. Péter Laczi, top local executive of third largest Pannon-Work Student Cooperative, said that the company produced an annual 20-30% revenue growth until 2008, then suffered a major 30% shrinkage with a revenue of HUF 787 million in 2009, from which it completely recuperated in 2010.

It seems that the crisis, even if it caused a temporary setback for these companies on a shorter one year time scale, generally in 2009, oddly affected student cooperatives in a positive way. This trend is clearly reflected in the revenue numbers of the major players of this field.

Szabolcs Másody, marketing director of the MŰISz Student Cooperation confirmed this, and said that since the crisis hit the demand for student work has grown exponentially. Companies find this is a more advantageous form of employment thanks to internship programs, and an increasing number of companies turned to student cooperatives for student work.

The growth seems to be lasting, too. Marosi says that Meló-Diák expects a “modest” growth of 15-20% for 2011, while Pannon-Work is looking for 5-10% growth for the current business year. Szabolcs Másody of MŰISz confirmed that after the revenue growth of the past few years, the company expects this positive tendency to continue in 2011.