Bulgaria's Q4 unemployment rate rises to 4.2%

The employment rate among those aged 15 to 64 in October-December fell by an annual 1.2 pp to 70.5%, corresponding to some 2.81 million people, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a quarterly report. The share of economically active people aged 15-64 was 73.7% in the three months to the end of December, marking a decline of 0.8 pp from a year earlier.

In the last quarter of 2023, the number of unemployed people amounted to 128,600, with men making up 53.6% of all unemployed.

Youth unemployment, or the share of people in the 15-29 age bracket who were not working, increased by 0.4 pp to 7.9% in the October-December period, equivalent to 26,600 unemployed youth.

The long-term jobless rate, or the share of those without a job for a year or more, rose by 0.2 pp to 2.2%, or 66,400 people, representing 51.7% of all unemployed.

There were some 1.05 million economically inactive people aged 15-64 in the fourth quarter, of whom 593,600 were women, NSI data showed. The total number of people aged 15-64 not in the labour force was equal to 26.3% of the population in that age group.