Employment in Bulgaria in 20-64 age bracket had strongest growth in EU in 2017 – Eurostat
The employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 in Bulgaria saw the strongest growth among all EU member states in 2017, EU statistics agency Eurostat said on April 20.
The employment in this bracket in Bulgaria increased from 67.7 per cent in 2016 to 71.3 per cent in 2017, Eurostat said.
In the 55 to 64 age bracket in Bulgaria, the employment rate rose from 54.5 per cent in 2016 to 58.2 per in 2017.
Eurostat said that the employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 in the EU reached a new peak at 72.2 per cent in 2017.
Compared with 2016, the employment rate for those aged 20 to 64 increased in 2017 in all EU countries except Denmark, where it went down (-0.5 percentage points, pp).
It grew most strongly in Bulgaria (+3.6 pp), Slovenia (+3.3 pp), Portugal (+2.8 pp), Romania (+2.5 pp), Croatia (+2.2 pp) and Estonia (+2.1 pp).
Employment rates above 75 per cent were recorded in Sweden (81.8 per cent), Germany (79.2 per cent), Estonia (78.7 per cent), the Czech Republic (78.5 per cent), the United Kingdom (78.2 per cent), the Netherlands (78.0 per cent), Denmark (76.9 per cent), Lithuania (76.0 per cent) and Austria (75.4 per cent).
Among these EU countries, the Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Lithuania and Sweden have already met or exceeded their 2020 national targets for this indicator in 2017, as have Ireland, Croatia, Latvia and Malta.
On the other hand, the lowest employment rate was observed in Greece (57.8 per cent), although it grew over the year (+1.6 pp), followed by Italy (62.3 per cent, +0.7 pp), Croatia (63.6 per cent, +2.2 pp), as well as Spain (65.5 per cent, +1.6 pp), Eurostat said.
