2009.03.10. 09:22
Companies report 20,000 layoffs since October
<b>Budapest</b> - Companies in Hungary have reported layoffs totalling 20,000 workers to job centres since the beginning of the economic crisis last October, the Vilaggazdasag business daily said on Tuesday.
In February alone 63 companies announced plans on group dismissals totalling 4,850 workers. Seventy-four percent of February layoffs were reported in the processing industry.
Most of them, 1,344, were reported in the central western regions, where several multinational firms and their suppliers operate, said the paper.
According to data by the Public Employment Service the number of registered job seekers in February rose by 6.7 percent month on month to 543,000. It marks a 14 percent increase on the same month a year earlier, the paper said.
The number of vacant jobs however was 22,300 last month, data by the service shows in the paper.
