The September-November unemployment rate is still down from the figure of 9.2% in the same period of the previous year, KSH noted.

KSH now includes fostered workers as “employed” when counting the unemployment rate. Fostered workers perform public service jobs in exchange for government subsidies that are lower than the minumum wage. If fostered workers were counted as unemployed, the actual unemployment figure would be higher.

According to KSH, the number of fostered workers accounted for approximately 6.3% of all employed Hungarians in October. In August, there were 195,100 people employed as fostered workers, or 48,100 more than a year earlier. The average number of fostered workers was 180,800 in the first eight months of 2014, up from 111,000 in the same period of 2013.