site.btaNew Investment Wave Has Driven Up Demand for Labour in All Sectors in Plovdiv - Deputy Mayor

The job ads and a look at the business environment show that there is a shortage of labour in every field: from construction workers to unqualified workers to engineers and IT specialists, Stefan Stoyanov, deputy mayor for Education, Business Development and European Policies of Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, said in a BTA interview. According to him, the Plovdiv region can absorb between 5,000 and 8,000 people in manufacturing alone. The heightened demand for workers is a consequence of a post-Covid wave of investors.

"There are now some jobs that Bulgarians tend to avoid and we need people from other countries to do the work," Stoyanov said.

More than 70,000 people in Plovdiv Region are employed in manufacturing. The fastest growing sector are the services. "We have broad manufacturing zones around the city, whle the business services, which include IT, outsourcing, finance and many others, provide jobs for university graduates and help the city retain talent. Over 44,000 people are employed in this sector. The third largest employer is end-customer services, including tourism and retail trade." 

In the Deputy Mayor's words, Plovdiv is no longer losing its talented people and has become like all other developed centres in the world and in Europe, that attract talented people.

Plovdiv has a community of over 24,000 foreigners who permanently reside and work in the city. Over 40% are from the European Union. There is among them a a broad representation of all our neighbouring countries and over 1,500 registered Ukrainians.

No market economy in the world that attracts capital and resources from abroad, and allows its own citizens to travel and work, does not attract labor from other countries, said Stoyanov. 

He said there is a need for the state to develop clear mechanisms to make it easy for businesses to hire labour from third countries. "If we have quick procedures to enable an employer to get a work visa for an employee within a month, this will guarantee additional growth of the economy in the next few years," Stoyanov said.

He said various estimates suggest that between 50-100,000 people may enter the country seasonally to work. 

Stoyanov commented that Plovdiv continues to develop dynamically and despite difficulties, especially with electricity and gas prices and inflation, the unemployment rate remains low - around 2% for the city and just over 3% for the wider district. 

In 2021 the city came ahead of the capital Sofia, for the first time ever, in terms of population growth.

The dominant industry for the region is food production and other sectors of the light industry, as well as engineering, electronics, and automotive parts. There is a tendency for expansion of existing and emergence of new industries in the high-end segment where hi-tech and therefore more expensive products are made, Stoyanov said.

Some industries are starting to leave the region because they cannot afford the high wages.

"We expect that Bulgaria will be in an advantageous position for the industry at least in the next 5 to 8 years and we will be able to attract high-tech industries together with their development centres, which will bing here more specialists," Stoyanov said. Thus, according to him, new product developments will be possible in our country. This is already happening: Liebherr has maintained a research and development centre in Plovdiv. Also, one of the major investments currently being made is by the Czech medical equipment manufacturer BTL and in addition to expanding their production, they are also starting to expand their research centre in the city, said Stoyanov.

The biggest investment announced for Plovdiv this year is an electric bicycle plant, which will be the largest in the EU. It is a joint project of Plovdiv-based bicycle manufacturer Maxcom and Austria-based bike manufacturer Pierer Group, and it is expected to be operational in 2023.

This year saw the opening of two smaller optics manufacturing plants in the Plovdiv region and the EU's first nitrile glove plant by a Bulgarian start-up.

There are at least 20 expansions of existing plants.

In addition to the foreign investments, a completely new Bulgarian industry is arriving on the marke, said Stoyanov. "We have a Bulgarian company that produces robots, drones and some of their products are world-class," he said. The American company Intuitive Surgical, which produces equipment for robotic surgery, is expected to build a plant in the town of Parvomay next year, and one of their most famous products is the Da Vinci surgical robot.

Before investing, companies are usually interested in many things in the region, such as the availability of talent, education infrastructure, taxes, eco-system, the efficiency of local authorities. "If you want to do business in a new place, you want it to look good. Plovdiv is big, but not too big, well balanced, with a lot of pedestrian areas, the climate is good, and it is still relatively cheap," Stoyanov said.