Nearly EUR 250 mln. to be provided for opening of new jobs in 2013

The reducing of unemployment index through the opening of new vacancies will be a major issue that this country will have to solve in 2013.

The state is the body that will have to bring the labor market back to live via subsidized employment, since economy on its own won’t be able to reach the pace, known from the period before the global economic crisis.

The goal is the number of unemployed people to be reduced, as some EUR 230 mln. will be used for measures for training and opening of new jobs. EUR 37 mln. of this money comes from the national budget, while the rest is EU funding. The finance ministry foresees that 100,000 people will start to work or will acquire new skills with this funding in 2013.

However, according to data of the National Employment Agency /NEA/ and the National Statistical Institute this seemingly impressive sum does not guarantee the reduction of unemployment index, since the financial support at the labor market has been nearly the same this year too – a bit over EUR 210 mln.

Subsidized employment will hold the growth of unemployment, but cannot stop it. It would be 13 percent without it, instead of the current 11.5 percent. There were a bit over 3 mln. employed people out of a total of 7.5 mln. during the third trimester of 2012, or almost 20,000 less on the same period in 2011.

Young Bulgarians have been affected the most. NEA data says that the number of unemployed young people has doubled over the past 4 years of economic crisis. Those were nearly 38,000 people in October 2008, when the first mass reductions kicked off due to the crisis. Now these are some 74,000. The overall number of unemployed people since the beginning of the year is 400,000 till now. 

Adapted from Bulgarian National Radio