In the first four months of 2005, gross wages increased by 11.9%, net wages grew by 12.3% year on year. These figures are down from growth rates of 13.7% in the first three months, boosted by bonus payments in the public sector. Real wages were up 8.3% in the January-April period.
According to the "regular payment index," (a figure excluding the effects of bonus and other one-off payments) wages rose 6.8% in the business and 7.1% in the budgetary sector in April, showing a slight decrease since March. In April, gross wages in the competitive sphere were up 6.4%, which compares to 6.9% growth in the public sphere.
In a breakdown by industry, gross wages were lowest in the forestry industry (HUF 68,905) at under 50% of the national average, while employees were by far best paid in the financial sector (HUF 335,248), receiving over twice the average Hungarian employee.
The size of Hungary's workforce was 2.776 million in the January-April period, the same as a year ago but slightly lower than the 2.789 million average in 2004. The competitive sector employed 1.915 million workers in the first four months, while public institutions had 803,500 employees - the former is 0.4% higher than a year earlier, while the latter shows a decline of 1.4%.
