The largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe have increased the number of employees

The largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe have increased the number of employees

The largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) increased the number of employees by an average of 0.7 percent to 2.3 million last year. This follows from the current Coface CEE TOP 500 ranking, which compared the 500 largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of sales, profit and employment in 2019. This means that 4.9 percent of the total CEE workforce worked for one of the 500 largest companies in 2019.

The labor market grew

As Coface's General Director for the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, Ján Čarný, further informed, the share was exactly the same in 2018. Overall, the labor market in the European region in question improved in 2019. Unemployment has reached record lows in many countries. "The lowest unemployment rate in the region was reported by the Czech Republic, which after 2.2 percent in 2018 last year managed to push unemployment to 2 percent, which is not only the lowest rate in the region, but also in the entire EU," said Ján Čarný.

Croatia and Hungary pulled the most

The highest levels of unemployment were achieved in the countries of south-eastern Europe. Serbia and Croatia have fought extremely high unemployment in the past, although they have recently managed to tame it. Companies from seven countries contributed to the 0.7 percent year-on-year increase in the number of employees. The most significant are Croatia (+24.7 percent) and Hungary (+23.8 percent).