site.btaBulgaria Among EU Countries with Strongest Employment Growth at End of 2025 - Eurostat

Bulgaria remained among the European Union (EU) countries with the strongest employment growth at the end of 2025, according to the latest data published here on Friday by Eurostat. This country has maintained a position among the four EU member states with the highest annual increase in employment for three consecutive quarters.

In the final quarter of last year, the number of employees and self-employed persons in Bulgaria increased by 2.5% compared with the same period a year earlier, reaching 3.629 million people. Compared with the third quarter of 2025, employment rose by 0.6%, or 22,350 people. For comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2024, nearly 3.541 million people were employed in Bulgaria.

In the first quarter of 2025, employment in Bulgaria recorded annual growth of 1.4%, followed by 2.6% in the second quarter and 2.3% in the third quarter, according to data from the European statistical agency.

Higher annual employment growth rates in the EU were recorded in Malta (4.1%), Portugal (2.8%), and Spain (2.6%), followed by Bulgaria (2.5%).

Overall in the EU, employment increased by 0.6% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, while in the euro area it rose by 0.7%. In the previous quarter, employment grew by 0.5% in the EU and 0.6% in the euro area.

Compared with the previous quarter, employment increased by 0.2% in both the EU and the euro area in October–December 2025. As a result, the number of employed persons in the EU reached 221.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year, of whom 172.5 million were residents of euro area countries.

Among the EU countries with the largest number of employed persons in October–December last year were Germany (45.9 million), France (30.66 million), Italy (26.9 million), Spain (22.8 million), and Poland (17.2 million).

By number of employed persons, Bulgaria ranked sixteenth in the EU, ahead of Denmark (3.268 million) and behind Austria (4.735 million).

Labour productivity, measured per employed person, increased by 0.8% in the EU and 0.6% in the euro area in the fourth quarter of 2025 year-on-year.

Measured by hours worked, productivity also increased compared with the same quarter of the previous year, by 0.7% in the EU and 0.5% in the euro area, respectively.