site.btaDeputy Economy Minister: 2022 Created Record-High Number of Jobs Despite Crises

In 2022, despite all the crises, the labour market created a record-setting number of jobs and employment is at its highest level since 2008: 72%, Deputy Economy Minister of Economy Irina Shtonova said here Thursday. She was among the speakers in the 12th edition of the HR Industry Exhibition, held on Thursday at Interpred - World Trade Center in Sofia. In the first 9 months of 2022 alone, employment has increased by more than 148,000 people.

The human resources sector continues to develop and is already a big industry employing more than 15,000 people, Shtonova said.

She stressed that another positive trend is related to wages: for the third quarter of 2022, employers paid 15% more per hour of work compared to the same period of the previous year.

Shtonova added that at every meeting with businesses, the lack of skilled workers comes up as a main challenge. "That is why we think it is very important to strengthen the connection between education and businesses, and we believe that you could very actively engage in this topic and together we could achieve even better results," Shtonova concluded as she addressed the HR people.