Hungary’s three-month rolling average jobless rate reached 3.8pc in April, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month and 0.3 percentage point from twelve months earlier, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

The rate covers unemployment among those between the ages of 15 and 74.

In absolute terms, there were 174,100 unemployed, 1,100 more than in the previous month and up 11,700 from a year earlier.

KSH noted that the February-April period was still not fully impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, saying 73,000 people lost their jobs in April.

The unemployment rate in the 15-24 age group was 11.2pc. The unemployed in this age group account for almost one-fifth of all jobless, KSH noted.

The unemployment rate in the 25-54 age group rose to 3.5pc, and the rate in the 55-74 age group was little changed at 2.1pc.

Out-of-work Hungarians spent about 9.2 months on average looking for employment during the period, and 25.7pc of the unemployed had been seeking work for one year or longer.

The number of employed stood at 4,435,900 among 15- to 74-year-olds, 55,700 less than in the same period a year earlier. The employment rate was 59.9pc, compared to 60.5pc a year earlier.

The number of employed included 96,200 Hungarians in fostered work programmes and 101,600 working abroad. The number of those employed on the domestic primary labour market fell 0.5pc from a year earlier to 4,238,100, while the number of fostered workers dropped 18.1pc. The number of those working abroad fell 12.0pc.

KSH defines „employed” in line with International Labour Organisation standards as anybody who worked one or more hour a week or was temporarily absent from their job during the survey week. The data also include those employed in public work schemes and those working abroad for less than one year.