Black labor market keeps expanding

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Hungarian authorities imposed more than HUF 200 million in fines last year related to labor irregularities. Illegal hiring of workers grew by 5% between 2016 and 2017, business news portal vg.hu reports.

According to data released by the Ministry for National Economy, checks conducted revealed that 17.11% of employees were hired illegally in 2017, while in 2016 this was only 12.73%. The rate is extremely high in the construction industry, where 47% were not registered last year, compared to 42% in 2016, vg.hu reports.

Black market labor is somewhat less prevalent in agriculture, where one third of employees checked were found to be working illegally last year. Security and services saw 22% illegal workers in 2017, slightly up on 21% in 2016, while the hospitality industry hired 19% illegally in 2017, up from 16% in 2016.

As for those legally hired, the most common irregularity is the omission of registration with the authorities, the ministry said.

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