In 2014 the labor market of this country began to stabilize after the heavy economic crisis. The level of unemployment was going down, while the one of employment was on the rise, according to data of the National Statistical Institute. The number of jobless people has decreased by more than 50,000 since the beginning of 2014. The level of unemployment was 11.2 percent last year, going down, though slightly, by 0.1 percentage points on 2013. To compare, latest Eurostat data shows that the average index for the EU is 10 percent. The Employment Agency registers an increase of manpower demand from the real sector through labor bureaus. There are some 161,000 job offers, or 22,000 more than in 2013. Salespersons topped the Most Wanted by Employers’ rankings in 2014, followed by workers from the sewing and textile industry, high school teachers, not qualified manpower, farmers and stock breeders, cooks and waiters. More than 188,000 Bulgarians succeeded in starting their new job last year with the help of the agency. The decline in the number of unemployed young people, aged up to 29 and of unemployed women can be outlined as a positive trend. Besides that, for the first time in 23 years the level of unemployment went down in the end of the year. The only similar case was registered in December 2002, when the From Social Benefits to Employment and Security national programme kicked off and a large number of unemployed people were included in subsidized employment. What do we owe this unusual drop in the end of the year to? CEO of the Employment Agency Assen Angelov gives us the explanation:

“It is due to the better work of the labor bureaus with unemployed people. We have also increased the trust of employers, who use our services and on the other hand – the selection of the jobless individuals registered has become better in terms of quality and speed. We succeed in contracting more quickly the interests of both parties. Of course, the stabilization of economy played a positive role as well, along with the increased number of job vacancies, as well as the slight increase of the employment level in Bulgaria, as shown by statistics.”

The risk groups of people, aged over 50, of the long-term unemployed and of people with disabilities are the most vulnerable ones. The unemployment level was on the rise there last year too. The Employment Agency admits that the active policies are not reaching effectively all most vulnerable groups on the labor market. Analyses further show that the structural character of unemployment is preserved, i.e. there is a discrepancy between offer and demand of manpower. This is one of the challenges that the Agency will try to overcome in 2015.

“We ought to find a way to influence this structural character of unemployment, i.e. to target more precisely our qualification opportunities, for training and education, complied with the necessities of the real sector, mostly with respect to local markets’ specifics,” Assen Angelov explains. “The separate labor markets, including the level of municipalities, cities and accompanying settlements around a leading city have significant differences. So we have to step on an analysis of those local markets. This approach has never been implemented by the Employment Agency so far.”

The once again limited budget is another challenge for the agency: some EUR 36.5 mln. that the National Action Plan on Employment for 2015 will be implemented with – it was adopted by the government yesterday. The good results, achieved on the labor market over the second half of the year will be kept as a trend, but not a

English version: Zhivko Stanchev