Characterisation of the out-of-work population and their barriers to employment

This chapter describes the out-of-work population in Bulgaria and the barriers to labour market integration they face with the aim of informing activation policy. In 2019, prior to the impact of COVID‑19, there were about 1.3 million unemployed and inactive people of working age in Bulgaria, around 900 000 of whom were not studying and might benefit from support with finding employment. Despite overall strong employment levels for the working age population, rates of youth not in employment education or training (NEET) are some of the highest in the EU, while Roma people face extremely high levels of joblessness and barriers to employment. In addition, Bulgaria has some of the lowest shares of employment for people with a disability and one of the largest shares of the inactive out-of-work for reasons of family and care responsibilities. Finally older workers aged 55‑64 years also make up such a large share of the out-of-work population that they must not be ignored. Appropriate activation responses will need to be tailored to the different needs these groups face.