Bulgaria's Sept Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.03% - Media

Bulgaria had an unemployment rate of 7.88% in August 2009 and 5.8% in September 2008.

The number of unemployed totalled 297,515 at the end of September, which was some 6,000 more as compared to the end of August, business daily Dnevnik quoted Mladenov as telling an international conference on the situation of the labour market in times of crisis.

The government plans to spend around 1.0 billion levs ($747.6 million/511.3 million euor) to fight rising unemployment expected to reach a double-digit figure next year. Unemployment rate was 6.27% at the end of last year.

Bulgaria's unemployment rate is expected to reach 9.5% at the end of 2009 and rise further to 11.4% next year, the finance ministry said last month. Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, has a population of 7.6 million people.