Spatial distribution of low-prestige employment in Hungary, 2011-2022

Abstract

The knowledge-based economy of the 21st century has significantly changed the employment prospects of workers. This transformation of the labour market has particularly affected low-skilled and disadvantaged groups of workers, as those who have not been able to keep up with the challenges of change have been marginalised. Nowadays, the issue of the integration of disadvantaged people has become one of the key strategic objectives for Hungary, where the most important question is how to put low-skilled social groups, which play a key role in the development of regional disparities, on a development path and make them active players in the labour market. There is no doubt that national decision-makers have a key role to play in raising the skills and education levels of their populations and in helping disadvantaged groups to catch up. Of course, we should not only think of primary and secondary education, but also of adult education opportunities, among others, and higher education has a key role to play, as the skills acquired here can provide a strategic, developmental and developmental approach, a way of life and thus economic growth and recovery. Linked to these theses, our study focuses on a specific group of disadvantaged people, those working in low-prestige, unskilled occupations.

The large increase in employment between 2011 and 2022 (close to 20%) has brought Hungary close to full employment by 2022, but the large increase in employment has been uneven across regions. Between 2011 and 2022, there was an increasing demand for occupations requiring higher skill levels, with a similar increase in the number of people working in low-skilled, lowprestige occupations. Unequal changes in the economic structure have caused spatial social transformations that may further reinforce the cumulative peripheral situation. At the same time, it should be stressed that after 2010, disadvantaged and lagging areas are catching up in terms of employment rates, as a result of work-based economic development. If this can be stabilised, it will then be possible to increase the level of skills, which could also have an impact on reducing the rate of emigration.

In our study, we attempt to present and analyse spatial contexts that draw attention to the trends of labour market transformation processes in the semi-periphery and periphery of the country and reveal facts that are inevitable for strategic development. All these contexts also inspire us to search for answers to the territorial directions of the necessary economic growth and the long-term strategic objectives of territorial development, which are strongly determined by the territorial distribution of low-prestige workers.