Employment classifications

The social distancing measures that have recently been introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic, have forced many people to work from home; for many of them this will be the first time that they have had to do so. However, how common was working from home before these measures came into force?

Allowing self-employed professionals to choose the amount of social security contributions they want to pay does indeed satisfy the long-time request for a rationalization of the burdens imposed by the social security legislation introduced in 2016 and known as the Katrougalos law, after the labor minister at the time, Giorgos Katrougalos. 

In 2018, 5.2% of employed persons aged 15 to 64 in the European Union (EU) usually worked from home. This share has remained constant at around 5% throughout the last decade. However, over the same period, the share of those who sometimes work from home increased from 5.8% in 2008 to 8.3% in 2018.

One in ten employed persons aged 18 years or over in the EU were found to be at risk of poverty in 2018. Over recent years, this share has risen from 8.6% in 2008 to 9.5% in 2018.

The in-work poverty risk in the EU differs slightly between women and men. In 2018, 9.9% of employed men were at risk of poverty compared to 9.1% of women.

The overall number of people in a job in the country increased by half a percent from September and by 1.8% since October 2018, according to a report from the Statistics Office.

Roughly 10% of those having a job (92,885) were self-employed. Their number fell by 1.6% year-on-year. The number of other people in employment rose by 2.2% in the same time to 808,400.

Bulgaria and Georgia signed an Agreement on Regulation of Labor Migration. The document was signed by the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Biser Petkov and and his Georgian counterpart, Ekaterine Tikaradze in Tbilisi today. The purpose of the document is to create an additional opportunity to provide workers for sectors of the economy where there is a labor shortage.

The results of the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Survey show that 11% of 621 employers surveyed in Bulgaria expect to increase employment levels in the next three months, 5% predict a reduction in staffing and 4% are uncertain about their plans for employment until 80% are considering changing their current workforce between October and December.

Revenues so far for EFKA, the unified social security fund covering all insured Greek employees, including self-employed professionals, have been disappointing and the next few months until the end of year will be crucial to its financial health.

Bulgaria is among the five EU countries with the lowest proportion of temporary employment, according to Eurostat's analysis of European Union labor market trends in the past year.

Employment increased in Greece last year but at the cost of diminishing salaries, data from the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) have shown.