Moderate expectations among Bulgarian and Romanian employers for increased employment

Approximately 78% of the surveyed Bulgarian employers and 70% of the Romanian employers express moderate expectations in their plans to hire new workers in their companies early in 2019. This shows that the labor market in both countries is more cautious than in previous years. 11% of the Bulgarian companies expect an increase in employment, while 7% expect a decrease. The same indicators for Romania are 20% and 9% respectively.

The research, in which 620 companies from Bulgaria and 625 companies from Romania were surveyed, encompasses a grand total of 44 countries and 60 000 employees.

The sectors in Bulgaria, where the biggest employment increase is expected, are „Finance, Insurance, Real Estate & Business Services“ (where the expectations are for a 25% increase) and Construction (19%). The lowest employment increase will be in the „Mining“ and „Public and social sector“ - 2%. In Romania, the „Manufacturing“ sector has the biggest perspectives for the beginning of the new year (an expected 26% increase in the number of employees), followed by „Finance, Insurance, Real Estate & Business Services“ (23%). The lowest expectations are for the „Electricity, Gas and Water Supply sector“ (-11%).

Regarding the different regions in Bulgaria, the representatives of Plovdiv express the greatest optimism about hiring employees (12%), followed by Sofia and Varna (with 9%), Ruse (8%) and Burgas (7%). Employers in the Southern Region (plus Bucharest and Ilfov) have the highest expectations for employment growth in Romania - 20%, while the lowest expectations are by representatives of the Southeast Region - only 9%.