/ world today news/ A smooth increase in employment in this and the following years and a decrease in unemployment were predicted by scientists from the Economic Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, presenting at a press conference their annual report on economic development and policies in Bulgaria.
It is expected that in 2016 the employed will be about 100,000 more,
and the unemployment rate to drop to around 12% compared to the 12.9% recorded in 2013, Assistant Professor Lyubomir Dimitrov said.
He announced that according to NSI data, the number of people employed in the Bulgarian economy in 2013 was 3 million 421 thousand people, or 393 thousand people (10.5%) less than the level of economic activity of the population in 2008
However, it can be considered that the process of reducing employment has reached its limit and in the coming years we will see an improvement in the labor market, Dimitrov announced.
In 2013, a slowdown in nominal wage growth was also noticed
due to the extremely low inflation, the unstable situation in the country and the restructuring of employment, stated assistant Lyubomir Dimitrov.
According to NSI data, the annual salary for the country last year was BGN 9,690, while the average annual salary in the public sector was BGN 10,073, and in the private sector – BGN 9,555.
Our country remains the poorest of the 28 EU countries and with the highest differences between regions, pointed out Prof. Dr. Stoyan Totev. European integration increases the differences between the regions, but in Bulgaria these processes are more acute and create bigger problems, Totev states.
These disparities have grown by 44.7% over the past 10 years, with Romania second only to us, but with only a 10% increase in disparities between regions over the past decade, he noted.
“We must strive for sustainable regional development – one in which regional differences do not grow, but are measured by economic indicators (GDP per capita), migration processes and environmental indicators,” commented the professor.
Prof. Dr. Vasil Tsanov pointed out that after 2003, a sharp increase in the inequality between the incomes of the population was observed in our country, and in 2008 the inequality was more than eight times between the lowest and the highest incomes.
In recent years, in our country 20-22% of the population lives at risk of poverty, while for the EU this percentage is 16-17,
Prof. Tsanov pointed out.
For the period 2005-2011, the number of poor people in our country reached 1.3 million – 1.7 million people. The most vulnerable groups are children (28%) and the elderly (28%), the poorly educated, single-member households with and without dependent children, and the unemployed. Almost half of the population in Bulgaria lives in material deprivation, further data collected by the BAS show.
The main reason for the inequality lies in the differences between the individual types of income – salaries, pensions, social benefits, the scientist states. If the state tries to reduce the differences between these types of income, inequality will also decrease.
This means regular indexation of pensions according to the so-called “Swiss rule” – taking into account inflation and economic growth, Prof. Tsanov pointed out.
However, the policy of social assistance should not mean that the state gives income to some people, and they do nothinghe noted
State policy should strive to provide new jobs, and not “subsidized employment”, but employment generated by economic growth, commented the professor.
There are large differences in remuneration between individual sectors, with the highest salaries being those working in the IT sector, finance and energy, and the lowest – in the “tourism” and “administration” sectors, according to the BAS analysis.
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