ABSTRACT
At present in Pécsely, non-agricultural employment is just as important as agriculture. Formerly, non-agricultural employment was not available to any great extent, and up to 1949 the number of villagers in non-agricultural occupations remained insignificant. Going back to the 1900s, those engaging in non-agricultural labour had to seek employment at some distance away from the village, so that continued residence there was impracticable. In the 1920s industries were created within the county and it became possible for villagers to contract for labour during the seasons when agricultural labour was not in demand and to commute back to the village weekly. Such work was somewhat more secure, as regards income, than daily labour in agriculture and could be carried on between autumn and spring, after which time there was ample labour in Pécsely itself during the peak agricultural season. Such temporary jobs were taken up only by the landless and did not result in any significant change in their lifestyle and culture: they remained 'peasant' and village-bound. The villagers themselves do not consider that such sporadic labour in industry was of any major social significance before 1949, and it is only after that time that industrial employment on a permanent basis emerges as a valid and permanent alternative to landowner and landless villagers alike.
