The strategy, adopted in June, set the goal of increasing the employment rate among 20-64 year olds to 75% by the year 2020. This signifies a 7% increase over the next ten years, as the current EU-wide figure is 69%.
The Bulgarian government not only believes it can attain the EU's benchmark, but has set itself a slightly higher national target of 76%. This goal is ambitious but not impossible, Krasimir Popov, deputy minister of labour and social policy, told Dnevnik.
To achieve the 76% aim, the country's employment rate will have to increase by 0.75 percentage points per year between 2011 and 2020. According to the Bulgarian labour ministry, this is achievable once Bulgaria emerges from the economic crisis and is able to focus on economic growth.
To put the envisaged goal in context, officials point out that the employment rate increased by an average of 1.3 percentage points each year from 2000 to 2010.
Deputy Minister Popov outlined five measures which will help Bulgaria to achieve its national target, namely: involving long-term unemployed and inactive citizens; increasing employment among young people; improving the flexibility and security of the labour market; improving correspondence between supply and demand; and increasing the level of knowledge and skills in the workforce.
These steps will form part of the annual 'national action plan for employment' and 'national reform programme for employment', which the ministry is currently working on along with employers and trade unions.
Any employment rate that the government targets is ''voluntary'', points out Plamen Dimitrov, deputy president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria.
He does not reject the 76% goal, but claims that it must be achieved within a clear strategy for economy growth.
''Employment is a function of the economy,'' declared Dimitrov, calling for detailed analysis of all economic sectors and their growth rates before any goal is determined. He also believes that business has to be given a say, as it provides the employment envisaged by the government.
Bulgarians very pessimistic
While the government and trade unions are trying to work out the best long-term strategy for the labour market, 95% of Bulgarians view the economic and employment situation in the country as ''bad'', according to Eurobarometer survey carried out in May and published last week.
Only 4% of respondents consider the Bulgarian economy to have been successful during the crisis, well below the 22% average among the EU’s 27 member states.
Moreover, 30% of the respondents in Bulgaria admitted to expecting more problems on the labour market and 33% want the government to allow for a bigger budget deficit in order to create more jobs in the crisis.
Bulgarians have reason to be worried. Only 60.2% of the population aged 15-64 were in active employment in spring 2010, reveals research by the country's National Statistical Institute. The number of unemployed citizens totalled 342,300 – an increase of 119,600 on the previous twelve months.
