Hungary was only surpassed by Latvia in terms of growth.

According to the third edition of "The Geography of Europe’s Brain Business Jobs: 2020 Index", made with the financial support of Nordic Capital, some 32% of the 103,600 new brain business jobs emerged in ICT, while 27% emerged in the tech sector. Advanced services account for 24% of the new jobs, with creative professions accounting for 17%.

The report notes that Hungary ranks highly in knowledge-intensive jobs concentration, surpassing CEE peers. The concentration is even slightly higher than in Norway. 

"The strong rise of brain business jobs in Hungary is a prime example of the rapid changes in the geography of successful enterprise in Europe," the report notes.

Hungary is also a top performer in high-tech manufacturing. The concentration in this sector is more than double the European average. In R&D, Hungary has more than 50% higher brain business job concentration than the European average. The report also notes that Hungary performed above average in pharmaceuticals, design & other creative work, and IT services.

However, in areas such as advertising and market research, as well as telecommunications, Hungary has a lower than average concentration.
 

Budapest beats Western European capitals

Budapest is the strongest region in Hungary regarding brain business jobs, with some 182,493 individuals, about 16.5% of the working-age population), working in such positions, a rate more than twice the national average.

Budapest fares well even when compared to Western counterparts, as the city has a slightly higher brain business job concentration than Copenhagen, Oslo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Helsinki, Brussels, Madrid, and Vienna.

In the Pest region, the report found 41,142 Brain Business Jobs (5.4% of the working-age population), compared to 4.1% in Central Transdanubia.

The worst performers were the Northern Great Plain and the Southern Great Plain regions, with 3% and 2.8% of working-age individuals, respectively, working at highly knowledge-intensive businesses.

The report says that the growth of brain business jobs must be boosted outside the capital region, in order to elevate the performance of the country as a whole.