Labour economics

Demographic trends are exacerbating the problem of labour shortages in the period of economic growth.

Preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) for the third quarter of 2019 indicate that the total hourly labour cost rose by 10.0% compared to the third quarter of 2018. The total hourly labour cost grew by 8.3% in industry, by 10.5% in services and by 10.1% in construction, the National Statistical Institute said in a press release.

With the end of the active summer tourist season, the number of employees under labour contract decreased by 39.1thousand, or 1.7%, compared to the end of June 2019, reaching 2.31million. At the same time, the average gross wage continues to rise, reaching BGN 1266 in the ninth month, against BGN 1224 in August and BGN 1257 in July.

Bulgaria has a substantial reserve on the labour market of over 200,000 people of working age who are inactive.

Prompting these people to be active and seeking employment opportunities for people with disabilities is a priority of the national employment action plan for next year, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy Lazar Lazarov told reporters.

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.

The previous four Notes for Discussion focused on demographics, and how this constitutes the anchor for the size of the macroeconomy.

In this follow-up Note for Discussion, we can complete the decomposition of the working-age population (WAP) into its component parts of participation (those people of working age who are working or looking for work), the labor force, unemployment, and, now, employment.

Restricting migration into Britain will very likely lead to lower output and employment growth, an interim report commissioned by the British government said on March 27, warning that firms were not prepared for a tightening labor market.

Business predict total change in the labour market by 2030. 85% of the professions will be entirely new, and employers will increasingly rely on machines and robots instead of human labour. The founder of the Software University, Svetlin Nakov, said on 21st of March at a conference on the future of work, organised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

Preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute, NSI for the fourth quarter of 2017 indicate that the total hourly labour cost rose by 12.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.