The unemployment rate in Hungary reached 10.3 percent in July-September, the highest since the first quarter of 1996 when the country was in a profound economic crisis, the Central Statistics Office said on Thursday The office said that 436,000 people aged 15-74 were jobless during the three- month period, 109,000 more than a year ago. The 10.3 percent jobless rate was 2.6 percentage points higher than a year ago and 0.7 percent up the previous quarter. A gender breakdown showed that the jobless rate for men was up by 3.1 percent, while for women it had risen by 2.1 percent, with the highest regional climbs in the most strongly industrialized western and central parts of Hungary. The jobless rate for the people aged 15-24 was 27.7 percent while for 25-54 -year-olds it was 9.3 percent. Fully 42.3 percent of the unemployed have been seeking work for one year or more. The average time between jobs is 16.4 months. In July-September the workforce included 3,753,000 people, down by 138,000 compared to a year ago. This is equivalent to 55.5 percent of people of economically active age having work, down by 1.8 percent compared to the same period of 2008. 