Unemployment in Bulgaria is down to 6.51% or 0.29 percentage points compared with March, the Employment Agency said. The decrease against April is 1.87 pp.

According to latest data, the number of people registered with the labor desks in the country as unemployment totals 241,075. This is 4.2% (10,565 people) less than in April and 69,185 people down y/y.

The business climate in the country is favorable, the Agency also said. Last month more than 22,000 people started a job.

More and more seasonal jobs are expected to appear as the summer is approaching. Those will mainly be in the sectors of hotel and restaurat business, agriculture and forestry, transport and trade. The secondary market also had an impact via employment programs and measures under the Law on employment encouragement.

There are 21,668 jobs announced via the labor desks at the moment. 11,698 of those are in the private sector.

1,912 vacancies were announced in May, which is 5.9% up from April. There are also 2,577 seasonal jobs, most of which in the sectors of hotel and restaurant (964), agriculture (494), transport (273), trade (185).

22,329 people started a job in April. 91% of them have been engaged via the labor desks. 2,330 (11.4%) of those jobs were opened via encouragement measures under the Law on employment encouragement and 6,103 (30%) via other special programs.