site.btaLabour Ministry Tries to Convince Economically Inactive People that Work Is Better than Welfare

In trying to promote employment, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy pays much attention to economically inactive people who have no motivation to try to find a job. All agencies of the ministry are working together to convince people in this group that having a job is better than relying on welfare benefits, Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivanka Shalapatova said in Veliko Tarnovo on Friday. She attended the opening of a career forum organized by the Employment Agency.

In 2022, there were 1,050,000 economically inactive people in Bulgaria aged between 15 and 64 and 144,400 young people aged between 15 and 29 who were neither studying nor working, Shalapatova said.

Some of these individuals are persons with disabilities who need a well-adapted working environment. Various measures have been devised for them and their prospective employers, the minister said. "As for young people, we apply a personal approach by using mentors and mediators to activate them," she added.

Concerning occupational training and retraining, the ministry has worked out a lot of measures, the main one having to do with upgrading people's motor competence to enable them to stay on the labour market. Another measure is to facilitate the import of foreign labour after the possibility to activate Bulgarian citizens is exhausted. To this end, a working group has been set up in coordination with the ministries of interior, foreign affairs and the economy and many other institutions. This last measure should have been launched long ago, Shalapatova said.

The career forum was opened by Employment Agency Executive Director Smilen Valov. In addition to direct meetings, it also involves career workshops and studios.