Unemployment in Bulgaria dropped year-on-year to 10.6% in Q4 2014 – statistics institute
Bulgaria’s unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 10.6 per cent, down 2.4 percentage points on the fourth quarter of 2013, the National Statistical Institute said on February 16.
In Q4 2014, there were 354 500 unemployed people in Bulgaria, the NSI said.
Unemployment decreased both among men and women, the institute said.
The unemployment rate decreased by 2.4 percentage points for men and by 2.5 percentage points for women, reaching 11.4 per cent and 9.7 per cent, respectively.
Of the total number of unemployed in Q4 2014, 57.3 per cent were men and 42.7 per cent were women.
Among the unemployed, 13.8 per cent had completed tertiary level of education, 51.4 per cent had upper secondary education and 34.8 per cent had lower secondary or lower education.
There were 226 700 long-term unemployed people (meaning, for a year or more), accounting for 63.9 per cent of all unemployed. That proportion went up by 3.9 percentage points as compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, the NSI said.
The long-term unemployment rate was 6.8 per cent, 1.9 percentage points higher for men compared to women (7.7 per cent and 5.8 per cent, respectively).
Of the total number of unemployed people, 16 per cent were looking for a first job.
In Q4 2014, youth unemployment, meaning people aged 15 to 29, was 17.6 per cent (18.5 per cent for men and 16.5 per cent for women), the NSI said.
That was 4.6 percentage points lower than in Q$ 2013, a decrease of 4.3 percentage points for men and five percentage points for women.
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