Employers in Bulgaria share moderate hiring plans for the summer period (April 2024 – September 2024). This is shown by the sixth forecast survey of the labor market of the Bulgarian Employment Confederation (BKZ).
A total of 31% of the 1,189 surveyed companies forecast an increase in the workforce, 36% expect to maintain the number of employees, 15% plan to reduce staff, and 18% are not sure whether they will retain or release personnel. Thus, the net employment rate – the difference between employers who plan to reduce the workforce and those who plan to increase it – is +16%, or an increase of 6 pp. compared to the previous half-year and by 24 p.p. less than the same period in 2022.
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The plans of employers in Burgas to hire new employees in the next 6 months report the largest increase – 4 percentage points, or an employment rate of +12%. Compared to the previous researched period, the forecasts of employers in Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna improved by one percentage point and the employment rate reached +66%, +11% and +10%, respectively. Ruse is the only region in our country where companies’ plans to increase their workforce report a decline, with the employment rate falling from +6% to +1% for the period April 2024 – September 2024.
The sectors in which employers share the largest increase in their plans to hire employees compared to the previous period studied are “Hospitality and restaurant” (growth of 7 pp) and “Wholesale and retail trade” (growth of 5 pp. p.), with the employment rate reaching +11% and +16%, respectively.
Graphics: BKZ
In the Information Technology and Outsourcing sectors, employers’ forecasts improve by 3 and 1 pp respectively, reaching employment rates of +24% and +13%.
The forecast of +9% for companies from the “Financial and insurance activities, real estate and business services” sector is maintained.
All other sectors included in the BKZ study – “Manufacturing”, “Transport, storage and communications”, “Construction”, “Public and social sector”, “Electricity, gas and water”, “Agriculture, forestry and fisheries” and “Extractive Industry”, marked a decline compared to the previous half-year, with it being the largest in “Public and Social Sector” (6 p.p.), and the “Extractive Industry” sector is the only one forecasting a negative employment rate (-1% ) for the period April 2024 – September 2024.
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“The consequences of the chronic head-on collision of business with the shortage of personnel will continue to be felt not only in the upcoming summer season, but at least until the end of September, if the procedure for importing personnel is not facilitated and the permanently unemployed and often neglected social workers are not integrated groups in the labor market”, notes Nadya Vasileva, chairwoman of the BCZ.
