Q4 2012 unemployment rate reaches 12.4%, up from 11.4% a year earlier

In Q4 2012, the unemployment rate in Bulgaria soared to 12.4%, up from 11.4% at the end of 2011, showed National Statistical Institute (NSI) data. The number of people who have been jobless for a long time, i.e. those who have remained without livelihood for more than a year, exceeded 210,000, or 13.3% of the economically inactive population. However, this category of unemployed already accounts for more than 55% of all jobless people, their number having increased by 7.5 percentage points, compared to Q4 2011, which is quite disappointing.

In Q4 2012, unemployed people in the country totaled 417,300 (237,800 men and 179,500 women) and their number rose by 8.6%, compared to Q4 2011.

The unemployment rate of the people aged between 15 and 29 was 20.7% (21.3% for men and 20.0% for women), having increased by 0.7 percentage points. The total number of employed people over the age of 15 was 2,952,000 in Q4 2012 and their share of the population in the same age group was 47%. Some 1,843,000 (62.4%) were employed in the services sector, more than 925,000 (31.3%) – in industrial production, and nearly 184,000 (6.2%) - in agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.

The data showed that the situation on the domestic labour market deteriorated sharply in the second half of 2012 - not only in the direction of a rising unemployment rate but also in structural terms, with an increasing number of people having remained jobless for a long time and being discouraged. Moreover, the growth of the employment rate cannot compensate for the increase in the number of jobless people.

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