Bulgarian Men Most Likely to be Jobless in EU

The percentage of unemployment among men of working age in the EU is highest in Bulgaria, Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, says.The share of unemployed men in Bulgaria is 25 per cent, followed by Romania at 13.5 per cent and Hungary at 11.7 per cent.

Data of Bulgaria’s National Statistics Institute, NSI, shows that there were 250,000 unemployed men in 2011, compared to 170,000 women.According to NSI, 3.3 million people had jobs in Bulgaria last year, of whom 1.7 million (56.5 per cent) were men and 1.5 (46.5 per cent) were women. The coefficient of economic effectiveness was 51.3 per cent.

Bulgarians aged 35-44 were the most labour active – nearly 990,000, followed by those ages 45-54 – 900,000, 25-43 – 670,000, and 55-64 – over 460,000.

The main working age of the overall EU population is 25-54, according to Eurostat data, which notes that this age group is the one that establishes families and raises children, but also has the highest rate of economically inactive people.

Eurostat data for 2011 lists 8.4 per cent of men and 21.6 per cent of women in the above age group, or 8.9 million and 22.8 million respectively, as unemployed.

Half of the unemployed women in the age group (about 10 million) say they do not have jobs because of personal or family reasons compared to only 0.5 per cent of men.

The number of those aged 25-54 not working due to illness, disabilities or early retirement, is nearly the same for men and women – 4.8 million and 4.9 million, respectively.

According to Eurostat data, nearly 75 per cent of jobless Europeans aged 25-54 had not worked in the last two years, while nearly one quarter never had a job.