site.btaEmployment Agency: Unemployment Remains Low in February

In February 2022, unemployment in Bulgaria remained at a low 4.9 per cent with an annual drop of 2.0 percentage points, the Employment Agency said Tuesday. 

At end-February, there were 159,906 jobless registered with labour offices, or 2,416 less compared to January and 65,375, or by 29 per cent fewer than a year earlier. In February, 19,407 newly unemployed registered at labour offices, down by 6,185 from January and by 5,490 from a year earlier. In addition, 445 students, pensioners, and employed persons seeking an alternative job had also registered with the Employment Agency that month.

A total of 3,670 jobless were employed in February, 829 more than in January and a year-on-year decrease by 5,516.

The highest proportion of people employed in February 2022 went to work in the real economy (56.7 per cent), including 20 per cent in processing industry. Another 17 per cent found jobs in retail, 8.3 per cent in hospitality industry, 5.7 per cent in farming, forestry, and fisheries, 5.5 per cent in construction, and 5.1 per cent in the state administration, among others. 

Some 2,172 people from risk groups found employment through subsidized schemes, including 58 under training and employment programmes and schemes, and 2,114 under schemes funded by Operation Programme Human Resources Development (OP HRD). The "Employment for you" scheme under the HRD OP, which started in July 2020 as an anti-crisis measure, has provided employment to a total of 52,000. In February alone employment contracts were concluded with 1,230 new unemployed.

The extension of funds under the familiar 60/40 jobs retention scheme continues, the agency recalled. By the end of February 2022, some 1,776 employers had taken advantage of the scheme, thereby keeping 37,200 workers.

Some 13,076 jobs were announced on the primary labour market, up by 1,288 compared to January and down by 393 compared to February 2021. The largest number of job vacancies in the real economy were registered in the manufacturing industry (24.1 per cent), followed by the hospitality industry (20.3 per cent), automobile sales and repairs (10.9 per cent), administration and auxiliary activities (8.5 per cent), in farming, forestry and fisheries (6.3 per cent), and the state administration (6.1 per cent).

In February, the most sought employees were in the field of personal services, stationary plant and machine operators, vendors, drivers, workers in the manufacturing industry, construction and transport, personal care, food processing, and woodworking, garment and other craft and related trades, waste collection, treatment and disposal, steelworkers, manufacturers, and related artisans, cleaners and helpers, etc.