Agriculture & Food, Volume 2, 2014

Abstract: In Hungarian agriculture, which plays an important role in rural employment, the signs of gradual restructuration can be seen. In the last decade the rural areas of Hungary – beside significant regional and sectorial divergences – could be characterized by high level and long term structural unemployment, low level of qualification, wages under the national averages, increasing number of people applying for social benefits and last but not least by ‘invisible incomes’ in connection with tax evasion. By analyzing the labor market potential of the agricultural sector as well as the opportunities it can easily be stated that employment extension in rural areas can hardly be based exclusively on basic agricultural activities. In agriculture primary the market-based employment can economically be more effective, but the increasement of economic and social activity of the population in disadvantageous position also needed for their integration.