site.btaIndia Ready to Sign Labour Migration Cooperation Agreement with Bulgaria

Addressing a round table organized by the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber (IBBC), IBBC Chairperson Petar Velev said Monday that Indian Ambassador to Bulgaria Sanjay Rana has submitted to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry the Government of India's position on readiness to sign an agreement with Bulgaria in the field of labour migration. Rana requests that the Bulgarian government accelerates the process. The forum was attended by diplomats, senior government officials and business representatives.

Caretaker Economy and Industry Deputy Minister David Sukalinski said that in the field of labour migration Bulgaria has already signed agreements with four countries - Israel, Moldova, Armenia and Georgia. According to the latest data from the Employment Agency, the number of registered unemployed in Bulgaria at end-April totalled 161,049, which is a decrease of 2,586 people, month-on-month, he noted. The number of job vacancies in the labour offices on the primary market increased, totalling 15,636 in April and 14,706 in March. In real economy, the largest number of job vacancies were in manufacturing - 19.2%, trade - 18.7%, and hotels and restaurants - 15.1%, Sukalinski briefed the attendees. Despite these trends, which were also observed in 2023, nationally represented employer organizations increasingly signal that they are experiencing an acute shortage of skilled workforce, he warned.

Velev said that workforce shortage in Bulgaria has reached 280,000 people with only 14,000 officially registered in labour offices, which is twenty times more, and in the next three to five years this number will grow to 800,000.

Sukalinski added that the observed shortage of skilled workforce indicates that the possibility of attracting skilled personnel from third countries to meet business needs in the short term should be explored.