site.btaIncreasing Number of Employers Plan on Hiring New Staff in Next Six Months

The number of employers who intend to look for new staff in the next six months is increasing, according to the first Employment Agency study for the needs of employers in the workforce for 2022, which was conducted in the period February - March this year.

The survey was organized jointly with the Employment Commissions of the Regional Development Councils in the 28 regions in the country. It is nationally representative and was conducted through surveys among a statistical sample of employers representing 378,752 active enterprises in the country.

The results of the survey show that 60,842 companies will be looking for new staff in the next six months. Compared to the poll in February-March 2021, their number increased by 2,620 or 4.5%. Businesses state the need for 239,339 workers and specialists with skills in various professional fields.

Over the next 12 months, employers will be looking for 128,789 specialists with a qualification acquired in the system of secondary vocational education and vocational training. The most sought after will be the professions of waiter-bartender, cook, machine operator, tailor, construction worker, welder, operational accountant, electrician, and cashier.

Bulgarian businesses will need another 62,905 specialists with legal certification or higher education. Among them, the most sought after will be drivers, nurses, teachers and doctors. Compared to the previous year, the number of sought-after graduates increased by 6,300 or 11.1%. The survey shows that 47,645 non-skilled workers will be needed in various sectors of the economy over the next 12 months. Compared to a year earlier, their number decreased by 8,100 or 14.5%, according to the Agency.

Some 70.7% of employers in the country faced difficulties in securing staff. On an annual basis, their share increased by 2.3 percentage points. Employers faced the most significant difficulties in finding sales consultants, cooks, tailors, machine operators, programmers. For comparison, a year ago the greatest shortage was in machine operators, operational accountants, assistant educators, welders and electricians.

A new wave of COVID-19 will affect employers, according to the Employment Agency. More than 19% (11,800 companies) of those who intended to hire staff will stop hiring altogether. The strongest negative impact on the intention to hire new staff in a new pandemic will be felt in the sectors of trade, hotels and restaurants, where 1/3 of companies will not to look for new staff. However, 50.5% of them, or more than half, will not be affected by the emergence of a new COVID-19 wave - that's nearly 31,000 companies. If new restrictive measures are introduced for businesses, low-skilled workers will be most affected. In such a scenario, employers are expected to abandon their plans to hire just over 10,000 workers with such qualifications. Nearly 5,000 jobs for qualified specialists with secondary and higher education will also remain undeclared in the presence of a new pandemic wave.

According to the study in the medium term (in the next 3 to 5 years) the specialists with higher education required will be 173,784 people or 7.6% of employees in employment at the end of March 2022. The three most popular professional fields will be pedagogy, economics and electrical engineering , electronics and automation. Over the next 3 to 5 years, Bulgarian business will need 208,964 specialists with secondary education. Compared to February 2021, demand decreased by nearly 33,500 or 13.8%. The most needed will be specialists in wholesale and retail trade, construction, production technologies - textiles, clothing, footwear and leather, mechanical engineering, metalworking and metallurgy and others.

Sofia-city remains the area where most workers and specialists are expected to be hired - 67,064, which is 28% of all stated needs in the country. In 12 regions, employers said they would need more staff than a year earlier. These are the regions of Sofia-city, Varna, Dobrich, Sofia region, Ruse,  Pleven and others. The lowest demand is in Burgas, Plovdiv, Targovishte, Haskovo and Lovech and others.

The study for the needs of employers covers proportionally enterprises with different numbers - from micro-enterprises with less than 10 employees to large enterprises with over 250 people. According to the economic activity, the largest share of the surveyed enterprises is in the sector of trade, transport, hotels and restaurant (34.3%), followed by the enterprises in the sector of general government, education, humanitarian health (16.1%), and in third place is the industry sector with 14.4%.

The labour force needs survey is conducted by the Employment Agency twice a year in order to collect and analyze up-to-date information on the professions, competencies, knowledge and skills of the employees sought by employers and to plan measures for organizing their professional training.