In the first five months of 2005, gross wages increased by 11.5%, net wages grew by 12.1% year on year. Real wages were up 8.2% in the January–May period.
According to the "regular payment index," (a figure excluding the effects of bonus and other one-off payments) wages rose 7.1% in the business and 6.7% in the budgetary sector in May on the year. In May, gross wages in the competitive sphere were up 10.2%, which compares to 10.1% growth in the public sphere.
In a breakdown by industry, gross wages were lowest in the textile industry (HUF 80,885) at under 50% of the national average, while employees were by far best paid in the financial sector (HUF 340,336), receiving over twice the average Hungarian employee's wages.
The size of Hungary's workforce was 2.780 million in the January–May period, the same as a year ago but slightly lower than the 2.789 million average in 2004. The competitive sector employed 1.916 million workers in the first four months, while public institutions had 806,200 employees – the former is 0.4% higher than a year earlier, while the latter shows a decline of 1.4%.
