According to statistics from the Family database (90Kb PDF) [1] of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD [2]), the employment rate of Hungarian mothers whose youngest child is under two years of age is the lowest among all OECD countries, with less than 20% of them in employment. Recent research by the Institute of Economics (Közgazdaságtudományi Intézet [3]) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA [4]) also indicates that this rate of employment does not increase significantly until the youngest child turns three years of age (Bálint and Köllő, 2007). The high level of inactivity during the early years of motherhood is maintained by a childcare benefit system in Hungary that provides low but stable financial support for parents – mostly mothers – until their children turn three years old and also parental leave for the same period of time (for a detailed outline of the benefit system see, for example, Korintus, 2006).[1] http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/29/61/38752721.pdf[2] http://www.oecd.org/[3] http://www.econ.core.hu/english/[4] http://www.mta.hu/
Recent research on employment trends among mothers in Hungary looks at their employment rate, whether they work part time or full time and attitudes to their employment. Due to the relatively generous childcare benefit system, and also the lack of high-quality childcare for younger children, the majority of mothers with children under the age of three years choose not to work. However, about half of all mothers return to full-time work after the third birthday of their youngest child.
Employment rates among mothers
According to statistics from the Family database (90Kb PDF) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the employment rate of Hungarian mothers whose youngest child is under two years of age is the lowest among all OECD countries, with less than 20% of them in employment. Recent research by the Institute of Economics (Közgazdaságtudományi Intézet) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) also indicates that this rate of employment does not increase significantly until the youngest child turns three years of age (Bálint and Köllő, 2007). The high level of inactivity during the early years of motherhood is maintained by a childcare benefit system in Hungary that provides low but stable financial support for parents – mostly mothers – until their children turn three years old and also parental leave for the same period of time (for a detailed outline of the benefit system see, for example, Korintus, 2006).
After the third birthday of the youngest child, however, this trend changes dramatically. Only one and a half months later, almost half (47.8%) of the previously non-working mothers resume full-time work, typically working non-flexible hours, and only 5.5% start working on a part-time basis – the rest become unemployed or remain economically inactive (Bálint and Köllő, 2007). Only 10% of all working mothers with young children worked part time between 1993 and 2003. When comparing this figure with national and European data, it exceeded the average rate of part-time work among women in Hungary of 6.2% in 2003; however, it was significantly low in terms of the EU15 average of 33.8% in the same reference year – as well as in relation to the EU27 average of 29% in 2003, which takes into account all of the then acceding and candidate countries (Eurostat, Persons employed part-time – Females, 2007). It also remained relatively low in light of prevailing attitudes towards mothers’ traditional roles and responsibilities.
Attitudes to mothers’ employment
The ‘Family and gender role’ survey, conducted as part of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 1988, 1994 and 2002, found that the majority of Hungarian adults object to the full-time employment of mothers with young children – the ISSP 2002 survey was conducted by the Demographic Research Institute (for further details, see Blaskó, Z., 2006). According to the respondents, mothers of pre-school children should ideally stay at home or work part time – the latter option gaining popularity and thus becoming almost equally desirable among respondents as ‘staying at home’ by 2002. In fact, at the time of this latest survey, working part time was the most widely supported option for mothers with young children among Hungarian women, with 49% sharing this opinion (see table below).
| 1988 | 1994 | 2002 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses | Full time | Part time | Stay at home | Full time | Part time | Stay at home | Full time | Part time | Stay at home |
| When there is a child under school age | |||||||||
| Men | 6 | 36 | 58 | 3 | 28 | 68 | 6 | 44 | 50 |
| Women | 10 | 44 | 46 | 6 | 33 | 59 | 7 | 49 | 44 |
| After the youngest child starts school | |||||||||
| Men | 29 | 48 | 22 | 18 | 48 | 33 | 33 | 53 | 13 |
| Women | 34 | 50 | 15 | 21 | 50 | 27 | 30 | 55 | 14 |
Note: Number of respondents =1,714 in 1988; 1,475 in 1994; 1,012 in 2002.
Source: ISSP, 1988, 1994 and 2002
Unfortunately, the standard, international wording of the ISSP questions does not allow for any differentiation between views on those with children under the age of three years and those with children aged between three and six years. One would expect that accounting for the two groups separately would result in the ‘staying at home’ response being more popular and ‘part-time work’ being less popular for mothers of children under the age of three years and vice versa for mothers with children between three and six years of age. Although it is possible that working full time would also be more socially acceptable for this latter group, it is still unlikely that the current high level of full-time employment among these women would meet much approval. In this case, it can be presumed that the proportion of respondents supporting mothers in full-time work in this group lies between 6% and 33%.
It should be emphasised that these survey findings do not present much information about the actual demand for part-time jobs among Hungarian mothers. This is not only because the ISSP research does not make it possible to separate the attitudes of the mothers themselves. Attitudes are clearly not good predictors of the actual behaviour people would show when offered a part-time job instead of a full-time position. Research indicates that offers of low-paid part-time jobs can make this option rather unattractive in practice. This is particularly the case when – as for most families in Hungary – two full salaries are necessary to support a family with children.
References
Bálint, M. and Köllő, J., ‘Gyermeknevelési támogatások’ [Child-care benefits], in Fazekas, K., Cseres-Gergely, Zs. and Scarle, Á. (eds.), Munkaerőpiaci Tükör 2007 [Labour market outlook 2007], Budapest, Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2007.
Blaskó, Z., Nők és férfiak – Keresőmunka, házimunka [Women and men – Employment, household duties], Budapest, Demographic Research Institute, Working Paper Series, No. 82, 2006.
European Commission, Employment in Europe 2003: Recent trends and prospects, Luxembourg, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2003, pp. 125–157, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/employment_analysis/employ_2003_en.htm
Korintus, M., ‘Leave policies and early childhood services in Hungary’, in Moss, P. and O’Brien, M. (eds.), International review of leave policies and related research 2006, DTI Employment Relations Research Series No. 57, 2006, pp. 31–35, available at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file31948.pdf
Zsuzsa Blaskó, Demographic Research Institute, Central Statistical Office
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2008), Employment trends of mothers, article.
