Employment in the public sector and its impact on the economic performance of V4 countries

The aim of this study is to analyze the impact of public sector employment on theeconomic performance of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary,Poland, and Slovakia—over the period from 2010 to 2023. The research specifically focuseson employment in key public service sectors, including public administration, defense,education, healthcare, and social services. These sectors are examined in relation to threefundamental macroeconomic indicators: Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross ValueAdded (GVA), and collective government consumption. A quantitative research approachwas adopted, utilizing comprehensive data from Eurostat. The methodology includes timeseries analysis, descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis, as well as ANOVAtests to assess the statistical significance of the observed relationships. The findings reveal aconsistently strong and positive correlation between the number of public sector employeesand the selected macroeconomic indicators across all four countries. This suggests that publicsector employment plays a significant role in supporting and potentially enhancing economicperformance. The study addresses a notable research gap, as most existing literature tends tofocus on national-level analyses and often overlooks the broader, comparative perspective.Furthermore, the role of the public sector as a direct contributor to economic value creationis frequently underrepresented in economic discourse. By offering a cross-countrycomparison, this research contributes a novel viewpoint on how public employmentinfluences economic outcomes. In addition, the study lays the groundwork for futureresearch, particularly in exploring how ongoing trends such as digitalization and theintegration of artificial intelligence may reshape employment structures and productivitywithin the public sector. These developments could have profound implications for bothemployment policy and economic strategy in the V4 region