Labour Market in Bulgaria: Dynamics, Structural Configuration and the New Challenges at the Beginning of XXI Century

The book presents the outcomes of a research project “Labour market in Bulgaria: Dynamics, Structural Configuration and the New Challenges at the Beginning of XXI Century” as a part of the scientific programme of the Economic Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The results outline the positive and the negative tendencies in the dynamic and the structure of the main labour market indicators (labour force, employment and unemployment). They identify the causes due to number of crises (in 2009, the health pandemic in 2020, and the global economic recession) and the changes in the employment structures from point of view of the new technological and environmental conditions. Specifically, they include: The employment and unemployment dynamics in Bulgaria since the beginning of 21st century is assessed with regard to the influence of the global financial crises (2009), the shock socioeconomic impacts of the health pandemic of COVID (2020), the subsequent global economic recession, and the war in Ukraine. Conclusions are drawn about the changes in the strength of the interaction between economic growth and the dynamics of employment and unemployment, and their direction in the different stages of the economic cycle is shown. The employment structures are assessed from the point of view of the transformation from “traditional” to higher technological structure. Conclusions are pointed out concerning the labour resource qualification and professional positional to support/delay the transition to a digital, green, connected, intelligent and cultural Bulgaria. Special attention is focused on the sectoral/branch economic changes in the context of the low readinessfor more radical changes (i.e. coal industry). The analysis of the accumulated world experience on the changed in labour demand support the arguments that the prevailing “traditional” industrial structure excludes significant shocks (mass job closure) because of digitalization.