14.8% of the Unemployed People in Bulgaria Had Attained Tertiary Education

In the third quarter of 2019 there were 125.4 thousand unemployed persons, of whom 70.9 thousand (56.5%) men and 54.5 thousand (43.5%) women. The unemployment rate was 3.7% and went down by 1.3 percentage points from the third quarter of 2018. The unemployment rate was 3.8% for men and 3.4% for women. Among all unemployed persons, 14.8% had attained tertiary education, 44.7% had completed upper secondary education and 40.5% had at most lower secondary education, NSI reported in a press release.

The unemployment rate by level of educational attainment was as follows: 1.8% for higher education, 2.9% for upper secondary and 10.8% for education lower than upper secondary. In the third quarter of 2019 there were 78.4 thousand long-term unemployed persons (unemployed for one or more years), representing 62.5% of all unemployed persons. The long-term unemployment rate was 2.3%, 2.5% for men and 2.1% for women. Of all unemployed people 22.3 thousand (17.8%) were looking for first job. In the third quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate for the age group 15 - 29 years was 6.1%, by 2.1 percentage points lower than in a year earlier. Over the period concerned the unemployment rate for men (15 - 29 years) decreased by 1.8 percentage points, and for women - by 2.3 percentage points, achieving 7.0% for men and 4.9% for women.