If you are one of the more than 140,000 people who applied to a Hungarian university or college this year, the degree you pick over the next few weeks will shape more than your student ID card. It will shape how crowded your first job hunt looks, and what your first payslip says.

The gap between fields has become hard to ignore. According to a Profession.hu analysis of graduate-level job postings and applications between January and June 2026 (compared with the same period in 2025), an engineering role attracts around 20 applicants on average, while a marketing, media or PR role attracts more than 100. That is roughly a 5 to 6 times difference in competition, for people who will graduate with the same level of degree.

What the numbers actually say

The Profession.hu figures are worth reading slowly, because they describe the market you will be walking into in three or four years, not an abstract trend.

• Marketing, media and PR: more than 100 applicants per graduate opening.
• Administration and assistant roles: close to 100 applicants per opening.
• Customer service: around 80 applicants per opening.
• HR and labour relations: around 70 applicants per opening.
• Legal roles: more than 60 applicants per opening.
• Engineering, healthcare and pharma, manufacturing and production: around 20 applicants per opening.

On top of that, the total pool got smaller. The number of graduate-level openings advertised in the first half of 2026 was 7.2% lower than in the same months of 2025. Fewer chairs, more people trying to sit down, especially in the fields where competition was already highest.

Profession.hu also notes where the openings are concentrated: finance and accounting, engineering, banking and insurance, manufacturing and production, and healthcare currently list the largest volume of graduate positions on the platform.

Where the starting salaries actually land

Competition is only half the story. The other half is what lands in your bank account.

According to the same Profession.hu analysis, starter roles in IT, programming and development, engineering, and manufacturing typically pay a net average of 500,000 to 600,000 HUF per month at national level. That is what a first job in these fields looks like on the payslip, not a senior figure and not a Budapest-only figure.

The dossier does not publish a matching net figure for marketing, admin, HR or customer service graduate roles, so we will not invent one. What the applicant ratios tell you is simpler: in fields with 70 to 100 candidates per opening, employers have very little pressure to push starter salaries up. In fields with 20 candidates per opening, they do.

Tüzes Imre, commercial director at Profession.hu, put the underlying pattern this way: engineering sits in a particularly favourable position because employer demand is high, competition between applicants is lower, and starter salaries are among the most competitive on the market. That is not a marketing line. It is what the applicant-per-role and pay data show at the same time.

What this means if you are choosing a degree right now

This is not a call to abandon what you love. Someone who does not want to be an engineer will not become a good one just because the applicant ratio looks nicer. But the data does give you tools you did not have a decade ago.

A few practical questions to sit with before you finalise your choice:

• How crowded is the entry level? If your target field runs at 70 to 100 candidates per role, plan a differentiator now: an internship, a language, a technical skill, a portfolio. Waiting until your final semester is late.
• Is the field on the shortage side or the surplus side? Engineering, healthcare, pharma, manufacturing sit around 20 applicants per role. Marketing, PR, admin, HR, legal sit far higher. Both can be right choices; only one lets you say no to a weak first offer.
• Do you have a fallback specialisation inside your field? A marketing student who also does data analytics, or an HR student who also does payroll and labour law, ends up in a smaller, less crowded sub-pool.

What this means if you are already close to graduating, or switching careers

If you cannot rewind and pick a different degree, the applicant ratios still change how you should run your job search.

Calibrate your expectations to your field, not to a generic average. A first offer in engineering or IT that sits inside the 500,000 to 600,000 HUF net band is broadly on market. A first offer in marketing or admin that sits under that band is not automatically a bad offer, because the sector pays less at entry level; you are comparing against a different peer group.

Check both numbers before you sign: the salary and the applicant density behind the role. A role with 100 people chasing it gives you less negotiating room than a role with 20. That does not mean you accept the first thing offered; it means you know how hard to push.

If you are switching careers into a shortage field, the applicant ratio works in your favour even without a matching degree. Employers in engineering, healthcare, and manufacturing are visibly short of candidates. A conversion course, a certification, or a documented project can move you into a queue of 20, not 100.

If you are staying in a crowded field, your CV has to do heavier work. Generic applications lose in a stack of 100. Specific ones, tailored to the role, with a clear proof point, do not.

The honest read

Not every diploma carries the same weight on the labour market, and pretending otherwise is not kind, it is just misleading. The 2026 admissions round put more than 100,000 new students on a path that ends, three to five years from now, in a market where an engineer competes with 19 other people and a PR graduate competes with 99.

You do not have to pick your degree by the applicant ratio. You do have to know the ratio before you decide how to prepare, how to negotiate your first offer, and when it is fair to say no to one.