71
REGIONAL SPECIFICITIES OF
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
REGIONAL SPECIFICITIES OF
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
6
6.1. Trends in the regional
employment policy
During the period of centralized plan-
ning regionalism was an important element
of administration. One of the objectives of
the economic and social policy pursued in
the regions was to maintain full employ-
ment of the able-bodied population. The
political centre determined the production
specialization by means of budgetary sub-
sidies and preferences as regards taxation
and prices. It secured relatively full em-
ployment and guaranteed, though low, in-
comes. The production specialization en-
forced, reproduced regional and settlement
differences in the quantiative and qualita-
tive parameters of manpower resources.
Regionalism in the economic policy
affected the entire chain of reproduction
of the manpower resources. Regional pref-
erences were used in the education and
training of manpower and in the forma-
tion of wages and salaries. Additional in-
centives were secured for a territorial mo-
bility of manpower. The economic priori-
ties on a regional scale were combined with
efforts to level out the social development
of settlements. In many cases the effects of
this policy were, however, detrimental to
the economic efficiency.
During the past five years the devel-
opment of the regional labour markets has
also had some general characteristics:
- Decrease of population and particu-
larly of the able-bodied population;
- An enduring imbalance has become
established in the regional labour markets
owing to the supply considerably exceed-
ing the demand of labour;
- A high unemployment rate has con-
tinued;
- There are structural imbalances be-
tween the supply and demand of labour;
- The passive policy with respect to
employment and unemployment has pre-
dominated.
These negative general trends are
manifest to a varied extent on the regional
labour markets:
The state of the labour markets calls
for a reassessment of the labour policy
pursued in the modelling of the economic
reforms. The extremes in the overall and
in the regional economic policy have to be
reconsidered. A balance between them
should be sought, which would make it
possible to step up the economic and so-
cial reforms and to reduce their social costs.
Imbalance in the
regional labour
markets
State of the regional labour markets in October 1995
Regions
Able-bodied
Employed
Unemployed People outside
population
the manpower
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Sofia city
14.5
16.7
6.9
13.6
Bourgas
9.9
10.0
10.4
9.7
Varna
10.7
10.9
10.9
10.4
Lovech
12.1
11.6
12.3
12.5
Montana
7.5
6.1
10.3
8.4
Plovdiv
14.3
14.4
14.3
14.3
Rousse
9.0
8.7
10.5
9.1
Sofia
11.5
11.2
13.5
11.4
Haskovo
10.5
10.4
10.9
10.6
Table 6.1.