Bulgaria's unemployment rate grows to 5% in Q1

The employment rate among those aged 15 to 64 went down by 0.2 pp year-on-year to 70.2%, which corresponded to some 2.8 million people, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) said in a quarterly report.

The share of economically active people aged 15-64 stood at 74% in the quarter under review, up 0.3 pp from a year earlier.

In the first quarter, the overall number of unemployed stood at 152,500, reflecting an annual rise of 17.6%. Men made up 53.2% of all unemployed as of end-March.

Youth unemployment, or the share of people in the 15-29 age bracket who were not working, leapt by 2.2 pp on the year to 9.3%, which was equivalent to 31,600 unemployed youth.

The long-term jobless rate, or the share of those with no job for a year or more, rose by 0.3 pp to 2.6%, or 78,500 people, representing 51.5% of all unemployed.

There were nearly 1.04 million economically inactive people aged 15-64 in January-March, of whom 587,400 were women, NSI data showed.