The software industry is the most socially responsible business sector in Bulgaria. It brings taxes and insurances that are three times higher than the average for the country, drives consumption in the economy, is a major investor in changing the quality of the working environment and is a significant factor in retaining young people in Bulgaria. The findings were made in the Annual Report on the state of the software sector in Bulgaria prepared by the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies. The data for the year 2023 show a serious increase in the number of people employed in the industry compared to 2022, when 50 thousand people worked in it:

"We're already over 58,000. We've had record growth for last year - almost 8,500 more people in the industry, and we've grown by about 4,500 on average. That's quite a success, partly because of the blue cards that are being issued a little easier. But not a critical part - only about 1,300 people are working in the branch on the blue card line - the rest are internally created or retrained people", Dobroslav Dimitrov, chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BASSCOM), explained to BNR. ‎

The regulation of the European Union, known as the Blue Card, enables highly specialized experts from third countries /outside the EU/ to move to work in Community countries, together with their families. This concerns all economic spheres, not only the software industry - doctors, engineers, programmers, etc. 

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However, the deadlines for issuing a Blue Card in Bulgaria continue to make our country uncompetitive on the European labour market:‎

"What made it difficult for us and continues to make it difficult for us is that in Bulgaria the blue card is issued in 4-6 months, while in Germany and Poland this procedure takes 4 weeks. When we compete with these countries for attracting talent from outside, we are highly uncompetitive. But we also have a considerable number of people from the EU attracted to Bulgaria as a place to build a career. The main problem in this case is neither the salary nor the conditions of our career development companies, but rather whether we advertise and position ourselves well - there is a need for a state policy that should not advertise our country only as a vacation spot, but we should position Bulgaria as a place where people are welcome with their families and where there are good conditions for making a career. This is something that our country must develop as a policy, that is why we have been proposing for a long time that the Investment Agency be renamed the Investment and Talent Agency. Because to transfer 1,000 such specialists to Bulgaria from another place is equivalent to finding a large investor for the creation of a factory, for example."

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In the long term, the trend of shortage of personnel for the IT sector in Bulgaria is expected to persist.‎

"In general, this is a global shortage. The whole economy is moving towards an extremely high technological level, which means that more and more such people will be needed. In the short term, there is a slowdown in growth, because of the global economic crisis that is swirling through last year, and it still hasn't been fully felt. However, we're not an island and it's bound to affect us, so there's a slight cooling in this market that will affect us next year. But in the long term nobody should be fooled that these people will ever be enough for us," Dimitrov predicts.‎

School is the first step where the training of personnel for the IT sector begins, but once a person enters this field, learning never stops. "Trends develop too quickly for an educational institution to always keep up with the times, that's why knowledge and technologies develop in companies," explains the expert and advises those wishing to make a living in the sector to start work as soon as possible study at university alongside. ‎

What is happening to Bulgarian students in high-tech academic fields? It turns out that almost everyone manages to start a good career in their homeland. "This is also one of the reasons to declare that we are the most socially responsible sector" - points out Dobroslav Dimitrov. According to him, good pay is part of the incentive:

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‎"People in our sector are not looking for employment abroad. On the contrary, there is a net return of people from abroad to Bulgaria. Our compatriots who graduate from Western universities return to pursue a career here," he says. “As for motivation, it should be sought beyond financial incentives- it is in the profession itself, which is extremely diverse, interesting, a profession that solves problems. For a curious person who likes to upgrade and grow, it is extremely interesting. Rather, it is the reason why a person stays long-term in such a profession, but also the salary is not a small part of the decision."‎

It is of key importance for the digitization of the Bulgarian economy that software specialists reach 100,000-150,000, and the state should not interfere, but help make the environment for living and working here more attractive, Dobroslav Dimitrov told the BNR.‎