1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

V. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMPLOYMENT, CHANGE IN THE COMPOSITION OF ACTIVE EARNERS

In the other occupational groups where some sort of qualification is needed, the number of workers did not fall in the past decade, in fact it increased considerably by 289 thousand (13 percent). If we examine the growth in the staff numbers with the help of more detailed classification of manual occupations, we find a tendency that follows the restructuring of the economy. Since 197 0 the number of those working in trade and catering industry jobs grew by 37 percent, the number of those pursuing transportation and communication activities grew by one third, in other words the growth in both occupational groups was higher than the growth of the number of manuals in the respective groups (29 percent and 12 percent). This indirectly refers to the growing proportion of those who pursue profil activities in these branches. At the same time the growth of the staff number in the service sector was almost the same as the growth in the number of manuals in the service sector (23 percent and 24 percent respectively). The realization of flat building programs and building investments required more and more skilled workers and mechanics in construction, which is expressed in the 19 percent growth in the number of those pursuing occupations in construction. The improvement in the technology of storing and packing, the growing mechanization of material handling also led to the growth in the number of workers in the building industry. Since 1970 there was a considerable growth (16 percent) in the number of operators of mechanical handling equipments and manipulators. The growth in the staff number of industrial workers was moderate (4 percent), but it has to be taken into account that they constitute 36 percent of all manuals and so they are the largest group among the manuals, which means that the relatively small percentage increase express a 50 thousand increase in their number. The composition of manual active earners by occupational groups Occupational group Number (in 1 000) Percentage Index 1980 1970=100.0 Occupational group 1960 1970 1980 1960 1970 1980 Index 1980 1970=100.0 Industrial 920 1 231 1 280 23.4 32. 9 36.4 104.0 Construction 240 341 405 6.1 9. 1 11.5 118. 9 Agricultural 1 749 911 505 44.4 24.4 14. 3 55. 5 Transportation and communication 172 217 289 4.4 5.8 8.2 132. 7 Trade and catering industry 127 175 239 3.2 4. 7 6. 8 136.5 Water supply economy and service 48 51 70 1.2 1.4 2. 0 137. 5 Mechanical handling and manipulator 67 135 156 1.7 3. 6 4.4 115.7 Other manual 615 675 576 15.6 18. 1 16.4 85. 3 Total 3 938 3 736 3 520 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 94.2 The change in the staff number of the various occupational groups reflects to some extent the transformation of the economic structure. The great increase in the number of miners is connected partly to the hydrocarbon-program which was based on the earlier more favourable energy situations between 1970 and 1980 the number of cutters fell by 36 percent, the number of trammers fell by 37 percent. In occupations which are connected to the progress of motorization there was a great increase in the number of workers since 1970, the number of motor mechanics grew one-iand-a-half-fold, the number of motor fitters grew by 43 percent. The spreading of the means of mass communication led to the 80 percent growth in the number of tv and radio technicians in the past ten years. In favour of the better food supply of the population, the food industry was modernized which brought about 89 percent growth in the number of workers in the meat industry, 43 percent growth in the number of bakers and 31 percent growth in the number of preserves-industry workers. The reconstruction of the textile industry meant the lessening need for labour because of the application of more up to date machinery. The number of textile workers fell by 36 percent. Since textile occupations are traditionally female occupations, the spreading of child-care-allowance also played a role in this decrease. Now 13 thousand textile worker women are on child-care-allowance, at the same time the number of active earner textile worker women is 61 thousand. The strong decrease in the number of active earners in agriculture left untouched the number of animal breeders^ in fact there was a slight (3 percent) increase in their number since 1970. Among the active earner manuals the proportion of women is lower (37 percent) than among all active earners (43 percent). The value of this indicator obviously changes if we take into consideration the 174 thousand manual women who were on child-care-allowance in 1980. With account for them two fifths of the manuals are women. 99