On Labor Day – a look at the job market in our country. The number of unemployed people is decreasing. According to official statistics, their share is just over 4%. Many of the workers, however, are finding it more difficult to cope with their needs and expenses.
The so-called working poor, or those who do not meet their basic needs and wants for the month, represent more than half of the working people – 65%. According to the calculations of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, this is about 1.6 million people. About 14% of unemployed Bulgarians are university graduates. And as many as 153,000 people fall into the “grey zone”, which means they do not work or study. This category mainly includes women with a lower level of education in sparsely populated areas. For the last 10 years, however, their number has decreased by 10%.
For more than 20 years, Tsveta has been working in a shoe manufacturing workshop. She says that if she and her husband do not work, they will not be able to handle the monthly expenses of the family. “We have expenses for food, clothes. We also have two children. A student too. It’s complicated. We try to fulfill their needs, but they still look up to the other children and want to have them too”, said Tsveta.
“Numbers of the week”: half of the unemployed – with a secondary education
She works for minimum wage. With the latest increase since the beginning of the year, it became BGN 933. Tsveta. “The proportion of working poor is increasing. However, the minimum wage is already above the poverty line, which is a step forward”, says Hristina Hristova, former social minister. In our country – there are about 160 thousand unemployed Bulgarians. Not the the main problem of the labor market in our country is the lack of hunger for workers, but a business policy. According to experts, the market sees an increasing age of workers, but also low education.
“All kinds of qualified specialists are wanted, even at times the state is starving for unqualified workers. Maybe, if I had to finish differently, instead of people with working habits. Even this is necessary”, Valentin Krastev, human resources company manager, member of the Bulgarian Employment Confederation.
Every fifth Bulgarian – below the poverty line in 2023.
It is not surprising – Bulgaria lags far behind in its efforts to attract large investors, compared to Macedonia, Serbia, Greece or Romania, experts say. “If the long-term path is to improve our education, the short-term is to attract workers from third countries, the medium-term is to encourage large investors. We have to take into account the regional imbalances between Sofia and other places. The EU allows us to encourage investors up to 60%, if they invest precisely in those weak and poorly developed sectors”, said Alexander Nutsov, “Strategy and Policies” in the Association of Bulgarian Entrepreneurs – BESCO.
2024-05-01 16:41:00
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