site.btaUnemployment Rate in 2014: 11.2 Per Cent

Unemployment Rate in 2014: 11.2 Per Cent


Sofia, January 13 (BTA) - Bulgaria's unemployment rate in 2014
was 11.2 per cent, a fraction below the level of 2013, National
Employment Agency Executive Director Asen Angelov told a news
conference here on Tuesday.

The decrease was achieved as a more effective work of job
placement intermediaries in the real sector of the labour
market, despite a substantial contraction of subsidized
employment.

The number of people included in subsidized employment in 2014
declined by 37,000 compared to 2013. Monthly labour office
registrations averaged 366,570 in 2014.

For the first time since 1991, unemployment in December 2014
declined from November by 0.1 percentage points to 10.7 per
cent. In December 2013, the unemployment rate was 11.8 per cent.

The only similar case of a month-on-month decrease of
unemployment in December was in 2002, but then the National
Programme "From Welfare to Employment" was implemented on a
pilot basis during the last quarter of the year and a number of
jobless people were included in subsidized employment.

People out of work decreased by over 50,000 in early 2014. By
comparison, the number in December 2013 was by 5,500 smaller
than at the beginning of the year. These results were achieved
despite a deep cut of financing for subsidized employment,
Angelov commented. In 2014, some 37,000 fewer people were
included in measures and schemes financed by the national budget
and EU funds.

A total of 351,051 persons were registered at the labour offices
in December, 2,553 fewer than in November 2014.

In December 2013, the unemployed were 10.407 more than in
December 2012, 9,616 more than in November 2013, and as many as
35,126 more than in December 2014.