Bulgaria's Unemployment Rate Hits 12.3% in 2012

Over one fifth of the Bulgarian population, aged 15 – 29, was unemployed in the third quester of 2012. File photo

In 2012, the unemployment rate in Bulgaria was 12.3%, by 1.0% higher compared to of 2011.

This is the final data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) published Friday.

The unemployment rate went up by 1.2 percentage points for men and by 0.7 percentage points for women, reaching 13.5% and 10.8% respectively.

In 2012, the economically active population aged 15 - 64 was 3 303.9 thousand and represented 67.1% of the entire population in the same age group. Compared to 2011, the activity rate (15 - 64 years) went up by 1.2 percentage points.

The total number of employed persons stood at 2 934.0 thousand representing 46.6% of population aged 15 and over.

Employed persons aged 15 - 64 were 2 894.9 thousand. The employment rate for the same age group was 58.8% (61.3% for men and 56.3% for women).

The employment rate for the age group 20 - 64 years was 63.0% and remained almost the same compared to 2011. The employment rate was 65.8% for men and 60.2% for women.

The employment rate of older people (aged 55 - 64) reached 45.7% which was by 1.1 percentage points higher than in 2011, and it was mainly due to increase of female employment.

Unemployed were 410.3 thousand persons of whom 241.1 were men and 169.3 were women.

The unemployment rate for the age group 15 - 24 years was 28.1%, and for the age group 15 - 29 years - 20.8%.

The number of long-term unemployed persons (unemployed one year and over) was 226.6 thousand, representing 55.2% of all unemployed. The long-term unemployment rate was 6.8% (7.7% for men and 5.7% for women).

The economically inactive persons aged 15 - 64 were 1 619.7 thousand, of whom 718.3 thousand men and 901.4 women. The inactivity rate was 32.9% (29.0% for men and 36.8% for women).

The number of discouraged persons aged 15 - 64 was 225.6 thousand.

The relative share of school dropouts of population in the age group 18 - 24 years was 12.5%.

26.9% out of the total population aged 30 - 34 years were with tertiary education.

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