January 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's average monthly jobless rate fell to 7.2% in 2017, 1.5 percentage points lower than in 2016 and the lowest in the last nine years, the government's employment agency said on Monday.
In December, the country's jobless rate stood at 7.1%, 0.2 p.p. higher than in the previous month and 0.9 p.p. lower than in December 2016, the employment agency said in a statement.
The number of unemployed people registered with labour offices countrywide fell by an annual 11.1% to 232,066 as at end-2017.
The number of people who found a job in December totalled 12,681. There were 7,674 registered job vacancies in December. The highest number of vacancies was registered in manufacturing – 2,513.
Bulgaria, a nation of some 7.1 million, had an economically active population of 4.3 million as at end-2016, according to the country's statistical office, NSI.