The number of people employed in the service sector is increasing, while the demand for labor in sectors such as agriculture and industry is decreasing. Data from the National Statistical Institute (NSI) show this trend, which is characteristic of the first quarter of the year. The number of people employed in the domestic economy was almost 3.5 million people, who worked almost 1 million 500 thousand working hours, statistics showed.
According to forecasts from the Employment Agency, this year Bulgarian businesses will need about 262,000 workers and specialists. Companies are planning to hire new employees and are looking for people with secondary education – builders, tailors, cooks, drivers, accountants, fitters and technicians.
There are more than 59 thousand vacancies in these sectors. Business also needs specialists with higher education – about 60 thousand vacancies. There is still a need for qualified nurses, doctors, engineers and pharmacists, and there is also a shortage of teaching staff and teachers. Employers are also looking for unskilled personnel – the number of vacancies by sector exceeds 50 thousand. According to the agency’s research, more than 66% of companies and firms operating in our country need labor. The main reason for the difficulties in hiring new personnel is the lack of education and qualifications of applicants.
According to Eurostat, the labor market is currently undergoing serious transformations. The reasons for this are due to technological progress, demographic changes and the desire for sustainable development. The problems facing the labor market are even more noticeable in Bulgaria, as the population of our country has decreased to less than 6.5 million people.
Seasonal employment is a temporary phenomenon on the labor market both for job seekers in Bulgaria and for compatriots who want to find work abroad.
“As for implementation in Bulgaria, the Employment Agency organizes job fairs before the start of the summer season, where people can meet directly with potential employers,” says Gabriela Goranova-Dimcheva, Deputy Executive Director of the Employment Agency. “This usually happens in March and April, when the season has not yet started, in order to hire staff for hotels and restaurants on the Black Sea coast in time. As for people looking for work abroad, in practice we have monitoring of how many people registered with the employment office cancel their registration due to the fact that they start working in another EU country. If we look at the data for the first 6 months, it is 5,000 people in the first 5 months of 2025 who deregistered from the office because they found seasonal work abroad. Our workers mainly go to countries such as Italy, Germany, Greece, France and Belgium. The sectors they are employed in are agriculture, as well as manufacturing and construction. They are often also in demand in the hotel and restaurant business.”
It is important to note that the employment offices perform the function of consulting and informing these people before their departure. The information they provide concerns the living and working conditions in the country where they want to find a job, Gabriela Dimcheva has said and specified that this is done through the so-called EURES labour mobility services, so that they know the minimum wage, which institutions are responsible for the various situations they may find themselves in in the country where they are going, especially if this is their first time. Most of the information is available on the national website supported by the EC. It contains detailed information on the jobs on offer, and the labour mobility services themselves are offered in all 106 employment offices in the country.
“Indeed, since the beginning of this year, the unemployment rate in our country has been decreasing. According to official data as of the end of April, the unemployment rate registered by the Employment Agency is 5.25% – this is 0.43% less than last year at the same time,” Gabriela Goranova-Dimcheva said. “Of course, our employment services are an extremely important part of the agency’s activities, and in April alone, more than 19,700 people found work by registering with the employment office. However, another important aspect is the fact that we actively try to reach people who are not registered with the Employment Agency or the employment office and are not studying or working. These are the so-called inactive people, and our goal is to reach them in order to motivate them to register with the employment office and then receive a service that meets their individual needs. In some cases, this is done by enrolling them in training, in others, it may be a direct job offer.”
The ratio of vacancies to the number of registered unemployed in May shows that there are 6 registered job seekers per job.
“Of course, it is extremely important whether a person has high qualifications or not – their chances of successfully implementing themselves in the labour market depend on this,” says Gabriela Goranova-Dimcheva. “People registered with the employment office as unemployed do not always have the necessary qualifications to match the positions offered. One way to overcome this problem is to include the unemployed in various types of training. These are completely free and applications are very accessible and can be done through the agency’s website.” (Novinite)