Since the beginning of 2021 the Labour Force Survey in all EU Member States, incl. in Bulgaria, is carried out in compliance with the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples and subsequent Commission implementing regulations in the field of labour force statistics. These regulations implied changes in the methodology of the Labour Force Survey, primarily related to the definitions of employment and unemployment, and in consequence, the 2021 data are not fully comparable to that for previous quarters.
• In 2021 the number of economically active population aged 15 - 64 was 3 155.3 thousand and represented 72.0% of population in the same age group. Compared with 2020, the activity rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points.
• The total number of employed persons was 3 076.5 thousand, representing 52.3% of population aged 15 and over. Among all employed persons 1 648.7 thousand (53.6%) were men and 1 427.8 thousand (46.4%) were women.
• There were 2 986.7 thousand employed persons aged 15 - 64. The employment rate for the same age group was 68.1% (72.0% for men and 64.2% for women). Compared with 2020, it increased by 0.5 percentage points.
• The employment rate for the age group 20 - 64 years was 73.2% (77.3% for men and 68.9% for women).
• The employment rate for people aged 55 - 64 years was 64.8% (69.9% for men and 60.1% for women).
· There were 171.1 thousand unemployed persons, of whom 95.5 thousand were men and 75.6 thousand were women.
• The unemployment rate was 5.3% (5.5% for men and 5.0% for women). Compared with 2020 the unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points.
• The unemployment rate for the age group 15 - 29 years was 10.4%.
• The long-term unemployed represented 49.5% out of all unemployed persons. The long-term unemployment rate was 2.6% (2.7% for men and 2.4% for women).
• There were 1 227.4 thousand economically inactive persons aged 15 - 64, of whom 527.0 thousand men and 700.4 thousand women. The inactivity rate (15 - 64 years) was 28.0% (23.8% for men and 32.3% for women).
• The number of discouraged persons aged 15 - 64 was 57.2 thousand representing 4.7% of the economically inactive population in this age group.
• The proportion of early leavers from education and training of population aged 18 - 24 was 12.2%. • The proportion of population aged 25 - 34, having completed tertiary education was 33.6%.
• The proportion of young people aged 15 - 29 neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET) was 17.6%.
Source: National Statistical Institute