Abstract
After the collapse of the single-party state, a new economic and social structure was born in Hungary. The main purpose of my study is to present the changes that occurred within the employment in rural areas. I shall analyse the changes in employment rates, and also the change in the distribution of employment amongst various sectors of the national economy. In order to understand the labour-market related problems of the extended rural areas, I shall focus mostly on changes that occurred within the sector of agriculture. After the regime change in Hungary, making a living in rural areas was greatly upset by the vast amount of free labour emerging due to the disintegration of the large-scale state system of agriculture. Since agriculture could be the only certain market for employing the high number of unskilled workforce that is typical at rural areas, I shall explore the changes occurred within the agrarian sector and in its employment in the past two decades, and also current plans and initiatives that are proposed to improve employment in the sector of agriculture.