There will be a shortage of labor in Bulgaria in 2008, Svetlozar Petrov of the JobTiger agency told a news conference on Tuesday.

As in 2007, the main reasons for the shortage are the growth of the economy, the enlargement of operational enterprises, new foreign and Bulgarian investment, large infrastructure projects, and ineffective use of personnel, Petrov said. The migration of experts of various qualifications to other EU member states will exert ever growing pressure on the labor market.

Other factors are the lack of in-depth information about the labor market, low labor mobility in Bulgaria and the lack of motivation, especially among young people, combined with the demographic problem.

According to Petrov, career planning is one of the solutions to the problem. Many employers are unwilling to encourage the career growth of their personnel, he noted. This causes loss of personnel and difficulty with personnel recruitment and motivation.

JobTiger expects wages to increase 15 per cent on average in 2008. Many companies have exhausted their potential for wage increase, and some of them have handled the issue with the methods of the shadow economy. This delayed expected business closedowns and bankruptcies in 2007, Petrov said.

There will be a need for temporary import of labor, especially for infrastructure projects, but long-term labor imports are not advisable, the agency says.