HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
76
Plovdiv and Rousse regions is also the large
proportion of unemployed who are school
graduates or who have completed their
service in the army. Statistics indicate that
the policy with respect to employment and
unemployment applied so far has not
yielded the desired results. Urgent action
is needed for the reduction of long-term
unemployment and for the provision of al-
ternative opportunities for employment.
Presented by the registered unoccu-
pied jobs, the search for employment ac-
cording to regions points to moderate dy-
namics far below the level of the manpower
discharged. This is the key imbalance of
the regional labour markets. Current ob-
servations of vacancies jobs show that in
their structure by regions, the relative share
of jobs offered is the highest in the capital
city. The regions in which the unemploy-
ment rate is the highest are also the regions
with the lowest rate of offering of jobs. This
comes to show that the source of unem-
ployment has been the stagnating economy
on a regional scale. New trends in the de-
velopment of unemployment are, however,
also taking shape. The structural imbal-
ances increase in the labour market of
labour. This is an indicator of the shift of
emphasis in
the policy of the labour mar-
ket from the opening of new jobs to the
qualitative balancing of the available jobs
and manpower.
The establishment of an effectively
operating labour market in the country pre-
supposes the existence of well functioning
regional labour markets, which promptly
and adequately react to the continuously
changing economic and social environ-
ment. One of the indicators of adaptability
of the market to the new conditions is the
diversity in the status of those employed.
Data of studies on employment and unem-
ployment have
shown that as a whole the
labour market is slowly getting out of the
stereotype of the centralized control of
manpower resources. Five years after the
start of the economic reforms, nearly 90%
of the labour force is hired labour. About
73% are employed in the state sector. For
the time being, the countrys labour mar-
ket is making its first toddling steps as re-
gards the presence of private employers
and self-employed individuals. The causes
of this are mostly hitched to the unresolved
problems of privatization of fixed capital,
of investments and the legislative stipula-
Table 6.2.
Settlements with a critically high rate of unemployment
gion; Loznitsa - Rousse region;
Nevestino - Sofia region;
- unemployment rate between
20% and 30% was registered in
Souvorovo, Dolni Chiflik, Dul-
gopol, Venets - Varna region;
Zlataritsa - Lovech region;
Belogradchik, Byala Slatina,
Oryahovo - Montana region;
Sadovo, Devina, Zlatograd -
Plovdiv region; Isperih, Tsar
Kaloyan, Omourtag - Rousse
region; Gurmen,
Belitsa - Sofia
region; Harmanli, Bratya Daska-
lovi, Mineralni Bani - Haskovo
region.
Box 6.1.
According to statistics gathered
by the monthly registration at the
employment offices, the follow-
ing settlements had a particularly
high rate of unemployment in
August 1995:
- above 40% was the rate of un-
employment in Samouil - region
of Rousse;
- between 30% and 40% was the
unemployment rate in Kaolino-
vo, Varna region; Ougurchin -
Lovech region; in Yakimovo,
Dimovo, Rouzhintsi, Koula,
Boinitsa, Medkovets - Montana
region; in Banite - Plovdiv re-
Private employers on
the regional labour
markets
Duration of unemployment by October 1995 (%)
Regions
Less than
1-5 months 6-11 months
More than
1 month
one year
Total for the
country
2.8
20.0
11.0
65.6
Sofia city
4.0
22.7
14.3
59.0
Bourgas
3.7
26.8
9.9
58.5
Varna
4.0
24.5
12.4
58.3
Lovech
2.6
20.1
12.7
64.1
Montana
0.9
16.1
9.5
72.2
Plovdiv
3.4
16.6
9.5
71.4
Rousse
2.1
17.7
10.4
68.8
Sofia
2.1
16.0
11.2
70.7
Haskovo
2.8
23.9
10.4
62.6
77
REGIONAL SPECIFICITIES OF
EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT
tions and incentives for the development
of big and medium-sized business in the
country, of tax preferences granted to petty
producers.
Four regions have registered a rela-
tive share of private employers and self-
employed individuals above the average
rate for the country, namely the regions of
Rousse, Bourgas, Plovdiv and Haskovo. In
these regions the share of unpaid family
workers is also the highest. The develop-
ing private business, however, has mostly
had one-man character and has not pro-
vided many jobs. The relative share of those
employed in it is even below the average
for the country. The private business in
Sofia is totally different. The relative share
of hired labour is the highest in the capital.
Overwhelming on all regional labour
markets is still the share of those employed
in the state sector. The state is still the ba-
sic employer and its behaviour has been
determining in the balance of the labour
market.
A concentration of population with
higher education in the capital and a high
share
of people with primary,
elementary
and unfinished elementary education takes
shape according to the educational stan-
dards in the regions of Rousse - 54.4%,
Montana - 53.4%, Bourgas - 52.4%, Sofia
- 52.3%. That potential in terms of educa-
tion is not a good base for prompt voca-
tional and professional response to the dy-
namically changing economic environment.
The situation of the unemployed is made
even more difficult by their slow adaptabil-
ity, engendered by the low level of their
education. In regions where unemployment
continues to be high for a long period of
time, the share of unemployed with low
educational level is the greatest. In the re-
gion of Rousse, 53.0% of the unemployed
have elementary or lower education. In the
region of Haskovo they account for 49.3%
of the unemployed. In Sofia the unemploy-
ment is one of the lowest with the highest
share of unemployed university graduates.
This fact comes to show that the problems
of the education and training of the unem-
ployed and their subsequent enlistment in
employment should be of primary impor-
tance in the labour policy of some settle-
ments. In other regions, the problems of
the rechannelling of the highly skilled
labour force and its reintegration in em-
ployment should have priority.
How do the unemployed look for employment?
For the time being the forms
preferred in the search for em-
ployment have been registration
at the employment offices and
applying for assistance to
friends and relatives. The regis-
tration in the employment of-
fices ensues from the legislative
regulations for receiving unem-
ployment benefits, social assis-
tance, enrollment in retraining
courses, and the like, but it is a
less reliable source of getting a
job. The behaviour in the search
for employment is more often
passive; the personal initiative
in arranging meetings with em-
ployers, in publishing or re-
sponding to advertisements is a
less common practice. The
behaviour of the unemployed is
an implication of distrust in the
market forms of the demand
and supply of labour. This
prompts whereto the efforts in
the employment policy should
be directed. A more stringent
legislative regulation and moni-
toring of the abidance by the
stipulations of the law in the em-
ployment should no longer be
delayed.
Box 6.2.
Dynamics of unoccupied jobs (%)
Regions
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Sofia city
28.3
27.7
21.3
17.3
28.5
Bourgas
8.3
7.1
7.2
10.4
6.6
Varna
10.7
10.4
13.3
10.0
10.3
Lovech
7.5
8.4
7.6
7.0
5.9
Montana
6.1
6.2
5.5
5.0
4.9
Plovdiv
11.1
10.7
12.7
11.4
9.8
Rousse
5.8
5.5
6.6
6.3
3.3
Sofia
10.4
12.1
13.3
15.9
17.1
Haskovo
11.1
11.0
11.7
16.3
13.1
Table 6.3.
Low educational
standards hamper
adaptation to the
changing labour market