Bulgarian Social Minister Strikes National Stats Unemployment Data

Bulgaria's Minister of Social Policy and Labor, Totyu Mladenov, says the only credible data about unemployment in the country comes from the Employment Agency, not the national statistics. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's Minister of Social Policy and Labor, Totyu Mladenov, firmly rejected data released Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute, NSI, listing unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2011 at 12%.

The Minister says the rate by the end of May will fall below 9% for the first time in the last several months, stressing the true data comes for the Employment Agency.

In January, the rate was 9.8%; 9.06% on Wednesday, and 9.02 Thursday – 334 262 people, according to the Agency's data, Mladenov explained.

The NSI data, however, lists the number of unemployed in the first quarter of the year at 395 500 – or there is a difference of 57 000 people, which Mladenov explains with NSI including those who have not officially registered as unemployed.

"When NSI do their polls, they ask people – do you have a job or not, without verifying the truthfulness of the answer. Unemployed people are individuals actively seeking work, not drinking coffee at coffee shops, and accepting jobs offered by the Agency within a two-week deadline," the Minister noted, adding he asked Thursday morning the NSI Director of she knew the number of people without jobs for the day and the answer had been no, while the Agency keeps daily track of similar data.

The Head of the Employment Agency, Rositsa Stelyanova, commented it is entirely possible for the unemployment rate to go down by 0.4% in 24 hours, saying this means 1 000 people – an occurrence often seen at the end of the month.

"Only under the "Development" program we hire about 500 people weekly, and others find jobs on their own," Stelyanova pointed out.

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