Bulgaria's Unemployment Rate Hits 12% in Q1 2011

In the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate in Bulgaria went up by 1.8%. File photo

In the first quarter of 2011, the employment rate for population aged 15-64 went down by 1.5% as compared to the same quarter of 2010 to 57.3% (59.9% for men and 54.8% for women).

The data comes from the Labor Force Survey, carried out and published Wednesday by the National Statistical Institute, NSI.

In the first quarter of 2011, the economically active population aged 15 - 64 was 3 243.1 thousand, representing 65.2% of the population in the same age group. The activity rate was by 0.3 percentage points lower as compared with a year ago, but a decrease was observed only for men - by 0.8 percentage points, while small increase was registered for women - by 0.3 percentage points.

The reduction of employment rate for men (by 2.4 percentage points) was higher than that for women (by 0.5 percentage points).

Between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011 the employment rate for population aged 20 - 64 years (an Europe 2020 indicator) dropped by 2.0 percentage points to 62.6%, 65.5% for men and 59.7% for women respectively.

The employment decline over the last year affected less the population in the age group 55-64 years. The employment rate for this age group was 43.5% in the first quarter of 2011, by 0.4 percentage points lower in comparison with the first quarter of 2010 and a decrease was observed only among men. By sex the employment rate (55 - 64 years) was 49.8% for men and

38.2% for women.

In the first quarter of 2011, 34.8% (1 727.6 thousand) of population aged 15 - 64 was not economically active (not in labor force). Inactive were 762.8 thousand (30.9%) of men, aged 15 - 64 and 964.8 thousand (38.6%) of women in the same age group.

In the first quarter of 2011, the total number of employed persons aged 15 and over was

2 890.7 thousand and had a relative share of 44.7% of population of the same age. Compared with the same period of 2010, their number decreased by 120.6 thousand (by 4.0%) and their relative share - by 1.4 percentage points.

Of the employed persons aged 15 and over 1 508.2 thousand (52.2%) were men and 1 382.5 thousand (47.8%) were women.

According to their level of education employed persons in this age group were: having attained higher level of education - 817.8 thousand (28.3%), upper secondary level of education -

1 755.3 thousand (60.7%) and lower secondary or lower level of education - 317.6 thousand (11.0%).

Between first quarters of 2010 and 2011 the number of employed with low level of education (lower secondary or less) marked the highest drop (by 16.0%).

Of the total number of working population aged 15 and over 4.0% were employers, 7.5% - self-employed, 87.5% - employees and 1.1% - unpaid family workers.

Of all employees 1 803.9 thousand (71.3%) were working in the private sector and 724.9 thousand (28.7%) – in the public sector. The share of women of all employees in the private sector was 45.9%, and of the employees in the public sector - 57.7%.

In the first quarter of 2011 largest part (61.7%) of the total number of employed persons -

1 784.6 thousand, were engaged in the Service sector, 928.3 thousand (32.1%) - in the Industry, and 177.8 thousand (6.2%) - in the Agriculture and forestry sector. Compared with the first quarter of 2010 the biggest drop in the number of employed persons was in the Industry - by 9.2%.

In the first quarter of 2011, the number of unemployed was 395.5 thousand and the unemployment rate - 12.0%.

In comparison with the same quarter of 2010 the number of unemployed went up by 54.5 thousand and the unemployment rate - by 1.8 percentage points.

The unemployment growth was higher for men than for women (the unemployment rate rose by 2.4 and 1.3 percentage points respectively), and in the first quarter of 2011 the male unemployment rate (13.2%) surpassed the female unemployment rate (10.8%) by 2.4 percentage points.

The young unemployed (15 - 24 years of age) were 67.3 thousand, and the youth unemployment rate reached 29.1%, 32.0% for men and 25.1% for women respectively.

The number of long-term unemployed was 208.4 thousand, which was 52.7% of all unemployed and compared to the first quarter of 2010 their number increased by 46.1%. The long-term unemployment rate went up by 2.0 percentage points and reached 6.3% in the first quarter of 2011.

The number of unemployed with duration of the unemployment less than a year decreased (by

5.6%) compared to the first quarter of 2010.

In the first quarter of 2011, 331.4 thousand of all unemployed persons (83.8%) had previous employment experience, and 64.2 thousand (16.2%) were looking for their first job.

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