National labour statistics also improved as a result of more people with disabilities as well as more women finding work, Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész said on Tuesday in Budapest.

The Minister of State said the past government cycle was successful in promoting job creation and employment for those with disabilities, as within that specific group unemployment has fallen by 40 percent in the last four years. He said that while at the end of the previous government cycle 43,500 disabled people found state-supported employment, this number has risen to a current 61,000.

He said the aim was to help people with disabilities support themselves through their own work rather than benefits and during the next term, the government will work on opening more areas of employment to them.
The Minister of State gave a review of legal changes affecting the disabled, highlighting a change in their examination and re-examination, which now focuses on remaining work capabilities rather than the disability. The government support system for employers giving work to disabled people has been developed and has a budget of an annual HUF 34-35 billion (EUR 110-113 million).

He said the introduction of the “rehabilitation card” was meant to help disabled people find jobs on the open market and the success of the initiative was clear because it already helped 23,000 people find jobs. He added that the various support schemes have been unified within the New Széchenyi economic development plan, resulting in 3,500 people receiving training and 3,600 finding new jobs.

He also said that the initiatives did not only create jobs for disabled people, but also a market for their products, thus their good quality products are now sold in supermarkets and also purchased by state and municipality institutions.

Piroska Szalai, former government commissioner in charge of improving the employment for women said that in the age bracket of 15-64, women’s employment rose to 55.1 percent, marking the first time that this indicator was above 55 percent. She also said that in the past four years this number has increased by 5.1 percent, which puts Hungary among the best performers in Europe. In the first quarter of 2014, 1.86 million women were employed, 134,000 more than in the same period of 2010.

(Ministry of Human Resources)