Laid off Hungarians turn to truck driving, carrot picking
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Canada’s economy unexpectedly gained 289,600 jobs in May, mostly in full-time work, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The jobless rate edged up to 13.7%.
Employment in the goods-producing sector gained some 164,700 jobs. The services sector gained some 124,900 positions.
Zoltan Wetter worked in restaurants for over two decades before the coronavirus pandemic cost him his job. With no savings, the 38-year-old chef from the town of Erd in Hungary took the first opportunity he could find: behind the wheel of a garbage truck.
Gabor Czaban, 36-year-old, also known as DJ Revolution works as a food delivery truck driver for a supermaket chain during the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Budapest, Hungary, May 27, 2020. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
Wetter is among tens of thousands of Hungarians who lost their livelihoods almost overnight after the new coronavirus struck in early March and Hungary went into lockdown.
The country got off relatively lightly compared to others in Europe, but the economic impact is still severe: The government expects gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink by 3% this year, and for unemployment to rise to 5.6% from around 3% in 2019.
Annamaria Lazar, 29, lost her job when the jewelry shop where she had worked was forced to close. Eventually, she found work picking carrots at a vegetable farm 70 km (44 miles) from her home.
“I thought I would not live to see the end of the first day,” she said. But at least she is financially independent of her parents, and she gets to be outdoors, Lazar said.
Gabor Czaban used to work as a DJ but quickly found work as a delivery truck driver for the Tesco supermarket group.
“I do not work in the DJ stand and see the joy on people’s faces now, but fortunately I still get to make people happy as they expect me to like the savior when I bring them some groceries.”
Meanwhile, Wetter applied for work at his local council. “When they called me back, I automatically said yes.” He has since been promoted from truck driver to dispatcher at a waste plant in Erd.
Wetter said his new line of work differed greatly from being a chef, but that it came with a more structured lifestyle:
Canada’s economy unexpectedly gained 289,600 jobs in May, mostly in full-time work, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The jobless rate edged up to 13.7%.
Employment in the goods-producing sector gained some 164,700 jobs. The services sector gained some 124,900 positions.
Zoltan Wetter worked in restaurants for over two decades before the coronavirus pandemic cost him his job. With no savings, the 38-year-old chef from the town of Erd in Hungary took the first opportunity he could find: behind the wheel of a garbage truck.