HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
78
6.4. Sex, age and ethnic differences
of the regional labour markets
Women predominate among the able-
bodied population. Their share in employ-
ment during the past two years has shown
a stable level of about 46%.
In individual
regions, this relative share ranges between
45 and 49 per cent. The indices of the rela-
tive share of women of the unemployed
(48.1% in October 1995) as well as of the
people outside the labour force (56-57%)
have also been stable. In the region of
Varna, the share of women in the overall
unemployment is more than half - 52 per
cent. The greater
part of the unemployed
entitled to unemployment benefits in all
spheres are women - 57.6% on the aver-
age for the country.
The involvement of men and women
in the labour markets has the following
specific features in October 1995:
- The coefficient of economic activity
of women (47.1) is much lower that that of
men (56.2);
- The coefficient of employment of
women (40.0) is much lower that that of
men (48.1);
- The coefficient of unemployment
among women (15.0) is higher that that
among men (14.4).
The highest relative share of the un-
employed women is in the regions of
Plovdiv - 14.7% and Sofia - 13.3%.
Youth unemployment has its highest
share in the region of Plovdiv - 15.9% of
all unemployed young people, in the re-
gion of Sofia - 13.6% and the region of
Haskovo - 12.3%. An analysis of the group
of unemployed, receiving social welfare
benefits has
shown that the relative share
of young people among them is 93.6%.
The ethnic groups make up 14.6% of
the countrys population. The share of the
Turkish ethnic group (9.4%) and of the
Gypsy ethnic group (3.6%) is the largest.
From the point of view of quantity, the
labour force of the ethnic groups does not
present any substantial problem to the
labour market. The problems ensue from
the concentration of that labour force in
individual towns and villages. Typically that
labour force was employed in industries,
greatly affected by the restructuring of the
economy and the subsequent high unem-
ployment. What characterizes this part of
the countrys labour resources is their slow
adaptation to the new conditions, owing to
their comparatively unfavourable quality.
These problems give rise to latent discrimi-
nation of ethnic groups on the labour mar-
kets. This can become the source of social
tensions.
In the conditions of centralized eco-
nomy, the state pursued a paternalistic
policy with respect to the employment of
some ethnic groups. That is why the
changes in the states socio-economic func-
tion and its giving up the policy of full em-
Economic causes underlying the high unemployment
of some ethnic groups
The changes have greatly af-
fected the sectors and manufac-
turing lines employing labour
from the Gypsy and Turkish eth-
nic groups. These are the sub-
sidiary production lines of me-
chanical engineering, the textile,
tailoring and shoe-making indus-
tries, developed in small settle-
ments with the purpose of pro-
viding livelihood to the popula-
tion.
Their close-down was one
of the first steps taken by the
enterprises at the beginning of
the economic crisis in 1990. The
canning and the tobacco indus-
try, where workers of Turkish or
Gypsy origin predominated,
were also affected by the dwin-
dling of the external markets due
to the disintegration of the Coun-
cil for Mutual Economic Assis-
tance. The liquidation of the co-
operative farms and the collapse
in agriculture engendered mass
unemployment among the popu-
lation of the Turkish ethnic
group, employed in the tobacco
industry, and of the Gypsies, who
earned their living by farming.
In this way the economic break-
down tangibly affected the work
force of these two ethnic groups.
Their limited opportunities of
self-employment have made
them a permanent contingent of
the labour markets. After the ex-
piry of the period of unemploy-
ment benefits provided for by the
laws, they pass into the group of
the
socially weak,
supported by
the state via social benefits.
Box 6.3.
79
REGIONAL SPECIFICITIES OF
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
ployment has affected particularly strongly
these groups of the labour force.
The problems of unemployment of
ethnic groups
have been looming large in
the following settlements:
- municipalities with predominant
population of the Turkish ethnic group and
with high rate of unemployment like the
Isperih municipality - 32%, the Ardino
municipality - 21.5%, the Kirkovo munici-
pality - 20.2%, the Razgrad municipality -
17.1%, the Kurdjali municipality - 12.2%;
- municipalities with a large share of
Gypsy population like the Stolipinovo resi-
dential district in Plovdiv, the residential
districts of Lyulin and Filipovtsi in Sofia,
the towns of Pazardjik, Stara Zagora,
Harmanli, Kazanluk, Ihtiman and Blagoev-
grad.
Census data show that in terms of eco-
nomic activity, employment and unemploy-
ment of the ethnic groups, the individual
regions have the following specific features:
1. The economic activity of the Turk-
ish ethnic group is the highest as a total for
the country (49.3%), as well as in all the
nine regions of the country. The economic
activity of the Gypsy population is the low-
est - 44.1% for the country as a whole. In
the region of Varna, where the relative
share of Gypsies is the highest, the coeffi-
cient of their economic activity is the low-
est - 42.8%;
2. The coefficients of the economically
inactive population bring to the fore the
Gypsies again with the highest figure
(55.9%). In individual regions it is even
higher - 58.4% in the Lovech region and
57.2% in the Varna region.
3. The Gypsies have the lowest coeffi-
cient of employment (26.8%). In the re-
gions where the Gypsy population has the
highest relative share of the total popula-
tion this coefficient is as follows: 26.2% for
the Varna region; 25.3% for the Lovech
region; 24.5% for the Rousse region and
23.6% for the Sofia region.
4. The unemployment is the highest
among the Gypsy population - 17.3%, with
variants from 21.2% (Rousse region) to
13.9% (the city of Sofia). The labour force
of the Turkish ethnic group has a coeffi-
cient of unemployment of 12.3% on the
average.
5. There is no sharp differentiation by
sex of the unemployed and of the economi-
cally inactive population for the individual
ethnic groups. The adverse after-effects of
the economic changes concern the two
sexes equally.
6. What
characterizes the unemploy-
ment in terms of ethnic background and
age is that in all ethnic groups, the share of
the unemployed aged between 20 and 29
is the highest. This inference holds good
for the country as well as for the regions
without exception.
7. The situation of the ethnic groups
on the labour market is complicated by the
significant differences in their quality char-
acteristics. The problems affecting the
Gypsies and most of the Turks are particu-
larly complex. The introduction of special
educational and qualification programmes
for the ethnic groups, which could ease their
problems on the labour market started with
great delay.
8. An assessment can be made of the
quality characteristics of the unemployed
of the ethnic groups by the census data from
the end of 1992. Out of all unemployed
with primary or lower education in the re-
gion of Rousse, at the time of the census
55.4% were of the Turkish ethnic group.
In the region of Haskovo that share was
41.3%, in the Lovech region - 22.3%, in
the Plovdiv region - 20.3%. The Gypsy
population accounts for 17.8 per cent of
the group of unemployed with primary or
lower education in the country and respec-
tively for 24.2 % of that group in the re-
gion of Varna, 28.8% in the region of
Montana, 18.1% in the region of Bourgas,
18.8% in the region of Haskovo.
There are ethnic
differences in the
labour market