site.bta45.3% of Bulgarians Economically Active by Early September

By September 7, 2021 there were 2,953,937 economically active persons, aged over 15, or 45.3% of the country's population. Of these, 2,662,292 were employed and 292,645 were jobless, according to data of the National Statistical Institute about the social and economic characteristics of Bulgaria's population as part of the latest census, published on Monday.

The economically active population includes all people aged 15 and over who are employed or jobless.

The number of the economically active persons grew until 1985, reaching its highest number of 4,686,140 people. Afterwards it dropped down to 2,953,937 by September 7, 2021. Compared with 2011, the number of the economically active people dropped by 376,000 or 11.3%.

There is a steady trend to increase the education status of the employed persons. During the observed period, 1,001,000 people had university-level education, or 39.3% of all employed. Compared with 2011, this share increased by 6.6 percentage points. The education status of employed women is higher than those of men. The share of women with university education of all employed women was 47.5% compared with 31.4% of men.

During the observed period, the unemployed aged 15-64 were 287,000. The unemployment rate, calculated as a ratio between the number of unemployed to the economically active population in the 15-64 age group, is a total of 10.1%, respectively 10.7% for men and 9.5% for women. By age, unemployment is highest in the 15-19 age group (36.1%), The unemployment rate is lowest in the regions of Sofia (4.6%), Gabrovo (7.4%), Plovdiv (8.1%), and highest in Vidin (20.1%). Silistra (18.1%) and Targovishte (17.7%)

The economically inactive population aged 15-64 was 1,234,000 people, or 30.3% of the overall population in this group. Of them 307,000 were students, 313,000 - pensioners, 18,000 were people who receive income from property, and 595,000 others. By regions, Kardzhali is the region with the highest share of economically inactive population (45,9%), followed by Silistra (39.4%) and Sliven (38.9%). The share of the economically inactive population in Sofia is the lowest.