Hungary’s business sector added 8,400 new jobs in March, but the biggest part of the 21,800 jobs added in the entire economy came from an increase in the number of people employed, mainly part-time, in public work schemes, fresh data published by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) show.

Overall employment numbers rose for the second month in a row in March following a 124,400 decline between last September and January of this year. The drop included a 87,900 fall in the number of people employed in public work schemes parallel with a restructuring of the programs by the government. Excluding these schemes, employment fell about 36,500 between last September and January, and rose 7,050 in February-March.

Employment in Hungary fell, by more than 190,000, between the summer of 2008 and January 2010, then rose, with some fluctuations, by more than 133,000 to a two-year peak of 2,745,500 in September before starting to fall again.

The number of employees in the public sector rose 12,100 to 728,200 in March from a month earlier. Public work schemes accounted for the entire increase as the number of jobs in such programs climbed 14,200 to 47,600. The number of jobs in public work schemes was down by more than a third from a year earlier.

Excluding public work schemes, employment in the public sector fell 2,100 to 681,000 in March from the previous month and was at about the same level as twelve months earlier, KSH noted. Including public work schemes, public sector employment fell 33,300 in the twelve months to March.

The number of people employed in public work schemes was less, however, if viewed statistically as full-time employees. About 35,900 or 75% of all such people were employed part-time in March, reflecting changes made during the restructuring of the programs. A year earlier, 60,600 workers in the schemes, or about 80% of the total, were employed full-time.

The same factor mutes the increase in public sector as well as overall employment in March as 13,700 of the 14,200 jobs added in public work schemes were part-time.

The number of people employed in public work schemes dropped sharply from 70,300 in December 2010 to just 13,200 in January as the government started the restructuring of the programs, setting new priorities such as part-time employment.

The number of people employed in public work schemes averaged 87,000 in 2010, up 43% over 2009. The number working full-time was 67,600 or 78% of the total. The number of full-time public work scheme employees was up 58% from 2009.

Full-time workers in the schemes earned on average gross HUF 85,000 a month in March 2011, 12.4% more than a year earlier. A rise in the minimum wage from HUF 73,500 in 2010 to HUF 78,000 in 2011 explained only part of the rise. At the same time the gross average monthly wage of part-time employees on public work schemes fell a sharp 25.4% from a year earlier, to HUF 41,685.

The figures compare to an average HUF 217,061 gross monthly wage for full-time employees in March, including a HUF 201,048 monthly average for employees in the public sector excluding public work schemes.

The combined number of employees at businesses employing at least five people, in the public sector and at non-profit institutions totaled 2,662,500 in March, rising 17,900 or 0.7% in twelve months and up 21,700 from the previous month. Employment in the business sector rose 49,000 to 1,831,800 in a year and was up 8,400 from February. The number of employees at non-profit institutions rose 2,300 to 102,500 in a year and was up 1,300 in a month.