site.bta124,000 Young Bulgarians neither Work nor Study, for Insufficiently Explored Reasons

Bulgaria routinely has more than 100,000 young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Their number has peaked at 180,000, and currently it stands at 124,000, MP Denitsa Sacheva (GERB-UDF), who chairs the National Assembly Committee for Labour and Social and Demographic Policy, told a youth employment forum in Sofia Tuesday, organized by the Center for the Study of Democracy.

According to Sacheva, the causes for this situation have not been studied sufficiently. It may be due either to low education or a lack of the kind of worker skills sought by employers. Sacheva noted that some contemporary forms of employment are not regulated by law, and hence, a large percentage of young people are statistically invisible. Young people's distrust for institutions could be another cause, she speculated.

The matter of NEETs is periodically raised in the public domain but never gets in the centre of political decisions and is never on the political agenda, Sacheva said.