Active and passive labour market policies in Austria and Hungary

Abstract

This article analyses the benefits/assistance and activation initiatives for the unemployed provided by Austria and Hungary, highlighting recent changes and trends in the regulation.

These two European states, which represent the Continental and the Eastern European systems, differ significantly in their history and approaches: Austria’s labour market and social security system remained quite stable in recent decades but underwent some changes that reflect a stricter and more activating approach. Hungary, on the other hand, is a post-socialist state that only had to establish an unemployment system in the 1990s and which recently limited the benefits and increased activation.