Beveridge Curve as an Indicator of Labour Market Performance

The paper deals with defining and evaluating development of the Beveridge curve in the countries of the Visegrad group in the period 2000 to 2012. Labour market performance is largely dependent on the economic cycle. In other words, if the economy gets into negative output gap rising unemployment appears and vice versa. The unemployment rate by itself cannot adequately characterize situation on the labour market. The recorded data can be stated that during the period correspond to shifts in the Beveridge curve in the different countries of the Visegrad group theoretical concept of this curve. This trend was reflected by reducing unemployment and raising the number of unfilled jobs. In the next phase, after reaching the summit, unemployment started to grow and the number of unfilled jobs started to decline as the consequences of the economic crisis. On the contrary, the Hungarian labor market can be described as rigid, though some shifts occurred during the observed period.