How much did it cost Hungarians to create a job?

In the last year before the pandemic, in 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade distributed a total of HUF 105 billion to Hungarian and foreign investors for job creation and / or investment development support. At that time, the creation of a single new job cost taxpayers HUF 15.9 million, which is the net salary of a skilled worker for at least three years – writes the People’s Word.

The subsidy per new job increased to HUF 132.9 million in 2020, which is the average annual salary of nearly HUF 400,000, the 27-year salary of an employee. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted an investment with an average of HUF 1.1-1.2 billion, the support intensity was 10-50 percent, according to the Ministry’s announcements related to individual investments. In return for state support, the companies undertook not to reduce the statistical headcount. No real survey has been made of how many people were planned to be made redundant out of the 264,000 “protected” 264 jobs before the aid was awarded.

This year, the Hungarian government provided a HUF 270 million state apanase to Heineken Hungária Sörgyárak Zrt.’s HUF 540 million investment in Sopron. In other words, Hungarian taxpayers pay half of the investment costs to one of the world’s largest beer multiples. The subsidization of Heineken was justified by the strengthening of the company’s competitive market position, the question is why this is the task of Hungarian taxpayers.

Last year, HUF 70 billion was paid to companies under the Ministry of Finance’s Large Enterprise Investment Program, of which investors will create nearly 700 new jobs, meaning that a single new job hurt taxpayers to HUF 100 million, according to a Facebook video uploaded to the finance minister’s website. Of the HUF 70 billion subsidy, a specific development of HUF 155 billion was created, ie taxpayers accounted for 45% of the subsidized investments.