Bulgaria's Construction Sector to Lay Off 5 000 Workers - Chamber

Ivan Boykov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber. Photo by Stroitel newspaper

Bulgaria's construction sector is expected to lay off at least 4 000 – 5 000 workers by the end of 2012, according to Ivan Boykov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber.

The number of seasonal workers in Bulgaria's construction firms is smaller in the summer of 2012 than it was the summer before, Boykov announced Tuesday, as cited by Focus.

"According to our estimates, the Bulgarian construction sector has laid off 76 000 workers since 2008. The amount of work is declining, that is, we don't have work any more, and that is clearly visible from the data of the National Statistical Institute," Boykov elaborated.

"The highways are done, the subway as well, there are no big infrastructure projects coming up save for the water supply projects but these are just tenders now. Our forecast is that people will be laid off, not hired," he added.

According to the Bulgarian Construction Chamber, about 17% of the construction workers in the country are unemployed, and there is no end to the slump in the sector in sight.

"The local authorities have no money for capital spending, and the central government has limited its capital spending to co-financing of EU funded projects. The number of construction firms remains the same but their turnover and number of workers are collapsing," Boykov summed up the situation in Bulgaria's construction sector, which was the major engine of the Bulgarian economy before the 2008 crisis.

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