In Budapest fully 23,9 percent of adults are employed in brain business jobs. No other of the 277 European regions has as high share of its adults employed in knowledge-intensive occupations. In the average European region 5,8 percent of adults work in brain business jobs. The share of knowledge-intensive workers in Budapest is 312% higher than the average European region. Another measure is high-value-creating jobs, which includes not only the most knowledge-intensive occupations, but also work in manufacturing industries and professional services. Fully 65,4 percent of adults in Budapest are employed in these jobs. This is again the highest share in all of Europe. In the average European region 31,2 percent of adults are employed in high-value-creating jobs.

The Geography of Europe’s Brain Business Jobs is an index that since 2017 has studied the geography of knowledge-intensive jobs in Europe. The index by ECEPR, with support from Nordic Capital, measures the share of the working-age population across Europe employed in highly knowledge-intensive enterprises, in 31 countries and 277 regions.

“An important finding of this index is that regions need brain business jobs, or else jobs in manufacturing industries and professional services. Each percentage point higher share of the population that are employed in these high-value-creating jobs corresponds with 0.21 percent lower regional unemployment. Essentially, regions need to have jobs high up on the value chain, to generate exports and stimulate job creation”, explains Nima Sanandaji, director of ECEPR.

Klas Tikkanen, chief operating officer at Nordic Capital Advisors, adds, “Financial resources are needed for jobs high up in the value chain to grow. Countries with competitive taxes tend to experience fastest growth of knowledge-intensive jobs. Just above a third of the variation of growth rate in brain business jobs amongst European countries can be explained in the variance in the tax level”.

253 300 brain business jobs in Budapest

In total numbers, there are 253 300 brain business jobs in Budapest. While this is the highest share of adults, in total numbers it is the second highest in Eastern Europe, since there are 285 400 brain business jobs in Warsaw. The highest total number is found in Paris, where nearly 1.3 million are employed in brain business jobs. London follows on second place with nearly 947 000 individuals employed in brain business jobs.

Programming is the most common brain business jobs activity in Budapest

The largest group of brain business jobs in Budapest is programming, which employs 66 900 adults. The second most common group is head office & management, where 43 600 are employed, followed by engineering & architecture which employs 30 100 individuals in Budapest.

4 out of 10 top brain business jobs regions are found in Eastern Europe, 3 in Western, 2 in the Nordics, and 1 in Southern Europe

In all previous editions of this index, the Slovakian capital region of Bratislava has had the highest concentration of brain business jobs per capita. This year Budapest climbs to the number one spot, followed by Bratislava and Prague on third place. Oberbayern, Paris, Stockholm, the Oxford region (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire), Copenhagen, London, and Bucharest are the other top-10 regions. Four of the regions in the top-10 are found in Eastern Europe, three in Western Europe, two in the Nordics, and one in Southern Europe.

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