In the first quarter of 2020 there were 3.107.2 thousand employed persons aged 15 years and over, of whom 1.667.1 thousand men and 1.440.1 thousand women, as Bulgarian National Statistical Institute latest report shows.
The share of employed persons in the total population aged 15 years and over was 52.4% (58.7% for men and 46.7% for women).
In the first quarter of 2020 there were 148.9 thousand unemployed persons, of whom 86.0 thousand (57.8%) men and 62.9 thousand (42.2%) women. The unemployment rate was 4.6%, 4.9% and 4.2% for men and women respectively.
In comparison with the first quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate went down by 0.4 percentage points, registering the same decrease for men and women.
In the first quarter of 2020 the total hourly labour cost (preliminary data) rose by 10.2% compared to the first quarter of 2019. The total hourly labour cost grew by 9.0% in industry, by 9.2% in services and by 8.1% in construction.
According to the NSI business inquiries in June 2020 18.6% of the industrial enterprises pointed out the labour shortage as a factor limiting their activity.
In March 2020 the average wage and salary was BGN 1 321 and rose by 1.0% compared to the previous month and by 5.9% compared to March 2019.
