The quarterly corporate business climate survey of Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) is based on the opinions of 400 chief executives about the current state and outlook of their businesses. From the companies surveyed, 300 small and medium-sized enterprises (with 20-249 employees) were selected to calculate the Comprehensive SME Business Climate Index and the Comprehensive SME Uncertainty Index. For the greater sample of 400, including large enterprises employing over 249 people, a Quarterly Business Climate Index and a Quarterly Uncertainty Index were calculated.

The following summary comprises the latest results gained from the largest representative survey series on the Hungarian labor market. During the study 6832 company leaders’ answers on employment, on the company’s business situation, and on the company’s future expectations were registered and analyzed. The history of the survey series targeting short-term expectations of the labor market goes back to the years following the regime change of 1989-90 in Hungary. The latest survey in this research program took place between September and October, 2017 as the tenth occasion of the collaboration between the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy and the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) to forecast the short-term economic prospects of the private sector, and to review corporations’ labor market decisions in an empirical study.

The results of the latest IEER SME Outlook business climate survey reveal that the business confidence significantly increased compared to the previous quarter: the Business Climate Index rose from 18 to 24 points. Thus, the decreasing tendency that started in January 2017 has been broken.

This paper examines the level of poverty among Hungarian seventh grade students and its effect on their future education plans. The data is based on the answers to a self-administered questionnaire of more than 9000 students from a research conducted by the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) in 2015. We find that a large group of students are deprived of basic necessities and that poor children plan to finish their studies earlier than non-poor children. Using mixed-effects regression models controlling for other possible factors affecting further education plans we show that the negative effect of poverty is substantial.

This brief analysis is to study what steps national corporations have already taken or they plan to take in 2017 concerning minimum wage raise and the increased guaranteed minimum wage for the skilled workforce in 2017. In the analysis eight taken or due steps in 2017 will be examined: (1) to avoid wage disparity those earning beyond the level of minimum wage will have a wage increase: (2) planned staff recruitment will be cancelled; (3) there will be layoffs; (4) planned investments will be postponed; (5) the scope of activity and tasks of those employees affected by the wage increase will be modified; (6) the affected employees’ employment will become part-time employment; (7) the benefits of the affected employees will be cut; (8) variable pay/at-risk pay will be decreased (bonuses, on-target earnings).

This study used the research conducted in April 2017 on corporate prosperity by HCCI (Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) IEER (Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research); during this research more than 3200 corporate leaders provided answers to the research questionnaire.

In its analysis the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) examined the perception of labor shortage among Hungarian companies. The analysis is based on the data of the October 2016 Business Climate Survey of 3185 companies among which 2980 answered questions related to recruiting difficulties, and labor and skill shortage. The analysis also covers how recruiting difficulties and expected investments, stock orders, and plans of salary increase are related. The results show that a growing number of Hungarian companies consider recruiting difficulties and labor shortage as an obstacle to business activity and two thirds of them expect that the problems related to this are going to worsen in 2017. The most prevalent problem mentioned by the companies is the recruitment of senior employees. Plans of salary increase and recruiting difficulties are positively related showing that salary increase is a possible way of adaptation to labor shortage among the Hungarian companies.

The following summary comprises the latest results gained from the largest representative survey series on the Hungarian labour market. During the study 6835 company leaders’ answers on employment, on the company’s business situation, and on the company’s future expectations were registered and analyzed. The history of the survey series targeting short-term expectations of the labour market goes back to the years following the regime change of 1989-90 in Hungary. The latest survey in this research program took place between September 7 and October 14, 2016 as the ninth occasion of the collaboration between the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy and the Institute for Economic and Enterprise Research (IEER) to forecast the short-term economic prospects of the private sector, and to review corporations’ labour market decisions in an empirical study.

The results of the latest IEER SME Outlook business climate survey reveal that the economic condition remains the same as that in the previous quarter: the Business Climate Index increased from 27 to 28 points. This is due to the fact that the vast majority of the sub-indicators stagnated compared to July 2016. Only three sub-indicators moved relative to the previous quarter: the production of level of the previous quarter dropped significantly, however, the expected business situation and the expected profitability slightly increased compared to July.

The Uncertainty Index is at a current level of 38 points, which is 2 point higher than in the previous quarter (it was 33 points in July 2016). The value of the Uncertainty Index indicates that the current trend is not uniform within the private sector, and that it will continue to be confined to one part of the economy and will not be felt by all small and medium sized companies.

In sum, we can assess that the Business Climate Index dropped to 27 points in July 2016 and 28 points in October 2016 compared to the peak of April 2016 (33 points).

The results of the latest quarterly business climate survey reveal that the economic condition remains the same as that in the previous quarter: the IEER Quarterly Business Climate Index is still 30 points. The upward trend since October 2015 has been broken in July 2016, when the Business Climate Index decreased from 33 points to 30 points. According to our results, this quarter is characterized by stagnation. (The Business Climate Index was only 24 points in the same period of the previous year.)

The Uncertainty Index is at a current level of 35 points, which is slightly higher than in the previous quarter (it was 34 points in July 2016). The value of the Uncertainty Index indicates that the current trend is not uniform within the private sector, and that it will continue to be confined to one part of the economy and will not be felt by all companies.

In sum, we can assess that the level of business climate is still favourable in October 2016, however, there were no improvement compared to July 2016, the value of the index stagnated.

The 38^th wave of the IEER Business Climate Survey was conducted in October 2016. This is the largest business climate survey in Hungary with regard to the number of participating companies. This year 3185 managers responded to the questionnaire on their business climate and short-term business expectations. The surveyed companies are representative to the Hungarian business sector in terms of economic performance, region and sector distribution. This analysis summarizes the results of the October 2016 survey. According to the new results of the IEER Business Climate Survey the IEER Business Climate Index decreased to +48 points in October 2016 from +49 points in April 2016, which is the second highest value in the history of the survey. Companies are still very positive about their current business climate, however, it seems that the continuing upward trend since October 2012 is broken. This is due to the fact that the expectations on investments (especially construction and machinery investments), profitability and stock orders are slightly more pessimistic than in the previous period. The value of the Uncertainty Index has increased by one point (October 2016: 48 points) compared to April 2016. This refers to the fact that the difference between the evaluations of the enterprises has not changed compared to the previous period.