1980 HUNGARIAN CENSUS OF POPULATION Summary data (1984)

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

It is an accompanying phenomenon of the economic and technical progress, that besides the growth in the number of skilled workers the number and rate of semi-skilled workers is also growing. In the course of the past decade the number of semi-skilled workers fose more moderately (by 14 percent, 172 thousand) than the number of the skilled workers. The number of unskilled workers in subsidiary jobs - despite the former - decreased considerably by 557 thousand, and at present their number is less than the half of the staff number of 197 0. The extent of the decrease of unskilled workers was similar among the young, the number of young people pursuing subsidiary activities was by 421 thousand (52 percent) less in 1980 than 10 years earlier. Among the manual employees and members of cooperatives the skilled workers constituted the largest group, there proportion was 43 percent in 1980 contrary to the 34 percent proportion 10 years earlier. This favourable tendency has a side effect, namely the growing demand for unskilled, subsidiary labour presses down the wages paid for qualified work. The composition of manual employees and members of cooperatives by staff groups Staff group Number ( in 1 000) Percentage Index: 1980 1970=100 Staff group 197 0 1980 1970 1980 Index: 1980 1970=100 Skilled workers 1 183 1 414 34. 0 42. 6 119. 6 Semi-skilled workers 1 226 1 398 35. 3 42.1 114. 0 Unskilled worker 1 067 510 30.7 15.3 47. 8 Total 3 476 3 322 100. 0 100. 0 95. 6 The staff groups composition of men and women is still different. The shift of proportions was in the favour of more qualified workers in both sexes, but while in the case of men the proportion of skilled workers rose strongly (from 45 percent to 56 percent), in the case of women the rise in the number of semi-skilled workers was considerable (from 45 percent to 62 percent). The considerable fall in the number of unskilled workers since 197 0, meant that their proportion decreased from 2 5 percent to 13 percent among the men, and from two fifths to one fifth among the women. At the beginning of 1980 one fourth of the nonmanual employees and members of cooperatives worked in leading fjosition, 56 percent of them worked as executive and almost one fifth of them were classified clerk. The composition of the nonmanuals by assignment shows considerably different face between the two sexes. The proportion of those in leading position is much higher among the men (44 percent) than among the women (11 percent), at the same time only small proportion (4 percent) of the men are clerks, while a considerable proportion of the women work as clerk (31 percent). The composition of the nonmanual employees and members of cooperatives by assignment, 1980 Assignment Number (in 1 000) Percentage ProporAssignment Total Men Women Total Men Women tion of women In leading position 386 285 101 2 5. 0 43. 6 11.3 26. 2 Executive 860 346 514 55. 6 52. 9 57. 6 59. 8 Clerk 301 23 278 19.4 3.5 31. 1 92. 4 Total 1 547 654 893 100. 0 100. 0 100. 0 57. 7 The age composition of the manual active earners is a bit more favourable now than it was 10 years ago. There was a slight rise in the proportion of both the under 30 aged and the 30-39 aged, so a rejuvenation tendency can be observed among them. At the beginning of 1980 the proportion of those under 40 was 58 percent among the manuals, contrary to the 56 percent proportion in 1970. In the past decade the proportion of the under 40 aged rose moderately also among the nonmanuals (from 60 percent to 62 percent), which is due only to the strong rise (52 percent) in the number of the 30-39 aged. In 1970 the educational level of half of the manuals was less than the 8 grades of primary school, by 1980 the proportion of the such low educated decreased to 26 percent. Meanwhile the number of manuals with vocational school completion rose more than twofold by 422 thousand, so in 1980 already 22 percent of them (contrary to the 10 percent proportion in 197 0) vocational school was the highest education. The proportion of those with secondary school as highest education rose considerably from 4 percent to 9 percent, so in 1980 31 percent of the manuals had completed secondary education as highest education, contrary to the 14 percent proportion in 1970, this means that in 1980 more than 102