Statistics: The Unemployment Rate in Bulgaria Decreases in 2018

Sofia. The unemployment rate is lower by 0.8 percentage points in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017, according to the National Statistical Institute. The employment rate for population aged 15-64 was 67.9%, up by 0.7 percentage points compared to the same quarter of 2017. The unemployment rate was 5.5% or 0.8 percentage points lower than the second quarter of 2017.

In the second quarter of 2018, there were a total of 3,157.1 thousand employed persons aged 15 and over, of whom 1,678.1 thousand men and 1,479.0 thousand women. The share of employed persons aged 15 and over was 52.5%, by 0.3 percentage points higher than in the same quarter of 2017. This share was 58.1% for men and 47.3% -- for women.
In Q2 of 2018, 2,002.3 thousand people, or almost two thirds of all employed, worked in the service sector, 940.7 thousand (29.8%) in the industry sector, and 214.1 thousand (6.8%) in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. 

Employment in individual age groups was as follows:

Employed persons aged 15 - 64 were 3,078.2 thousand, an employment rate at 67.9% (71.2% for men and 64.4% for women).
The employment rate for the age group 15-29 was 40.6% (46.3% for men and 34.6% for women).
The employed persons aged 55-64 were 590.1 thousand, or 61.0% of the population in the same age group (64.9% of the men and 57.5% of the women). 

The number of unemployed persons was 182.2 thousand, of which 109.8 thousand (60.3%) were men and 72.4 thousand (39.7%) women. The unemployment rate was 5.5% and fell by 0.8 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2017, with men decreasing from 6.9 to 6.1% and women from 5.7 to 4.7%.

Along all unemployed persons, 13.6% had higher...

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