site.btaBulgaria's Q2 Jobless Rate at 3.6%, Down 0.7 pp on Year

In the second quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate in Bulgaria was 3.6%, 0.7 percentage points lower than in the second quarter of 2024, the National Statistical Institute said.

At 71.0%, the employment rate of the population aged 15-64 was unchanged from the same quarter of 2024.

The activity rate of the population aged 15-64 was 73.7%, decreasing by 0.4 pp from a year earlier.

In the second quarter of 2025, there were 110,000 unemployed persons, of whom 60,800 (55.0%) were men and 49,700 (45.0%) were women. The unemployment rate was 3.6% (3.8% for men and 3.5% for women).

In the second quarter of 2025, there were 46,800 long-term unemployed persons (unemployed for one year or more), 42.4% of all unemployed. The long-term unemployment rate was 1.5%. Among all unemployed, 15,000 persons (14.0%) were looking for a job for the first time.

In the second quarter of 2025, the youth unemployment rate (in the 15-29 age group) was 8.0% (8.6% for men and 7.1% for women). Compared to the same quarter of 2024, this rate was higher by 0.1 pp, which was entirely due to an increase among men, by 0.2 pp.

Employment

In the second quarter of 2025, there were 2,934,100 employed persons, of whom were 1,554,200 men and 1,379,900 women. The employment rate for the population aged 15 years and over was 53.2% (59.3% for men and 47.7% for women).

In the second quarter of 2025, 1,974,200 persons (67.3% of all in employment) worked in the service sector, 804,300 (27.4%) in industry, and 155,600 (5.3%) in agriculture, forestry and fishing.

By employment status, the distribution of employed persons was as follows: 5.5% (161,000) employers, 7.3% (214,600) self-employed without employees, 86.8% (2,545,900) employees and 0.4% (12,600) unpaid family workers. Of all employees, 1,906,100 persons (74.9%) worked in the private sector, while 639,800 (25.1%) worked in the public sector. Among all employees, 74,600 (2.9%) had а temporary job.

In the second quarter of 2025, employment by age group was as follows:

There were 2,817,100 employed persons aged 15-64 (1,492,900 men and 1,324,200 women). The employment rate for this age group was 71.0% (74.3% for men and 67.6% for women).

The employment rate for the 15-29 age group was 34.9% (39.3% for men and 30.3% for women). The employment rate for the 20-64 age group was 77.1% (80.8% for men and 73.3% for women), up by 0.3 pp from a year earlier.

Economic inactivity

Among all unemployed persons, 13.4% had attained tertiary education, 52.2% had completed secondary education and 34.4% had primary or lower education. The unemployment rate by level of education was as follows: 1.3% for tertiary education, 3.5% for upper secondary education and 13.0% for primary or lower education.

The economically inactive persons aged 15-64 were 1,042,100 (456,100 men and 585,900 women), accounting for 26.3% of the population in this age group (22.7% of men and 29.9% of women). Among all persons not in the labour force aged 15-64, 43.1% were inactive due to participation in education or training. There were 15,500 discouraged persons aged 15-64 (1.5% of the economically inactive population in this age group), the NSI said.