site.btaEnterprises Say Third-Country Workers in Bulgaria Come Mostly from Ukraine, Turkiye - Survey

Third-country workers in Bulgaria come mostly from Ukraine and Turkiye, and many are from Middle Eastern countries, such as Nepal and Thailand, say enterprises that took part in a survey within the Recruit4Tomorrow project for promoting employment of third-country nationals through social dialogue. The Bulgarian partners in the project are the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) and the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, the BIA reported Friday.

A total of 522 small, medium and large-size enterprises from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia filled out the online survey between April 22 and June 30, 2024. In Bulgaria, 102 companies gave complete or partial answers to questions about hiring third-country nationals.

According to the Bulgarian companies, the main priorities for easing the hiring process should be: provision of opportunities for submitting job applications and documents online; rationalization of the process for issuing working visas, and broadening of the list of countries whose citizens are permitted to work within a bilateral agreement.

According to the answers received, the average gross salary of third-country nationals is EUR 1,505.4, which is less than what the other employees at those enterprises are paid. Despite this difference, the majority of the surveyed enterprises think that the salaries of third-country nationals are comparable to those of the other employees.

The average gross salary at the surveyed enterprises is EUR 1,824.7 a month, which is by nearly 80% higher than the average gross salary in Bulgaria in 2023 (around EUR 1,022.58). The highest average salaries were registered in Sofia, up to BGN 2,722 (around EUR 1,391.74).

Non-EU workers are employed mostly in the services sector (11%) and general work (14%), followed by manufacturing and professional and technical activities. Other jobs done by such workers are construction, programming, social work, cooking, IT, and other jobs, the respondents said.

Personnel shortage hinders companies' activity, so they make various efforts to apply measures for training and qualification in support of third-country nationals' integration in the labour market, the Bulgarian part of the survey shows. The respondents listed as areas with the most significant lapses the use of digital instruments and the recognition of qualifications/skill assessment.

The language barrier proves a significant obstacle to the integration of third-country workers. The participating enterprises note significant lapses in the provision of additional language courses, computer literacy, and communication skills. When it comes to information and consulting, the respondents mention as main lapses career development, knowledge building about the labour market, and IT programmes/applications.