December 23 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government said on Wednesday it extended until September 2021 its job retention scheme known as the '60-40 measure' that was introduced in April to soften the impact of the coronavirus crisis on employment.
"For the 60-40 measure, we have 600 million levs ($373.2 million/306.8 million euro) planned for next year, which will help us maintain it almost by September," labour minister Denitsa Sacheva said in a press release following a cabinet meeting.
So far, some 627 million levs have been allocated to local companies under the wage support scheme, thus saving 250,000 jobs in the country, Sacheva added.
In October, the government extended the job retention scheme by three months, until December 31. Some 750 million levs needed to finance the scheme will be provided from the country's Unemployment Fund. The wage support measure is focused on the transport and tourism sectors that were most affected by the restrictions on travel introduced to limit the spread the coronavirus.
Bulgaria’s registered unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percentage points month-on-month to 6.7% in November, according to the government's employment agency.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)