Main Labour Force Survey Results - 2025 - Annual data

The Labour Force Survey in all EU Member States, including in Bulgaria, is carried out in compliance with the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council, establishing a common framework for European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples and subsequent Commission implementing regulations in the field of labour force statistics.

In 2025, there were 106.9 thousand unemployed persons, of whom 59.3 thousand (55.5%) men and 47.6 thousand (44.5%) women.

The unemployment rate was 3.5% (3.7% for men and 3.3% for women) and compared to 2024 it decreased by 0.7 percentage points.

Among all unemployed persons, 16.0% had attained tertiary education, 53.4% had completed upper secondary education and 30.6% had at most lower secondary education. The unemployment rate by level of educational attainment was as follows: 1.4% for tertiary education, 3.6% for upper secondary education and 12.5% for lower education (lower secondary or less).

The unemployment rate for the age group 15 - 29 years was 7.7%.

The long-term unemployed represented 42.4% of all unemployed persons. The long-term unemployment rate was 1.5% (1.6% for men and 1.4% for women).

In 2025, there were 2 930.1 thousand employed persons, of whom 1 552.4 thousand (53.0%) men and 1 377.7 thousand (47.0%) women. The employment rate for the population aged 15 and over was 53.2% (59.3% for men and 47.6% for women).

In the service sector worked 2 003.0 thousand persons (68.4% of all in employment), in the industry sector - 787.2 thousand (26.9%), and in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector - 139.9 thousand (4.8%).

According to the status in employment, the distribution of employed persons was as follows: 5.6% (165.3 thousand) employers, 7.1% (209.1 thousand) self-employed persons without employees, 86.9% (2 546.7 thousand) employees and 0.3% (9.1 thousand) unpaid family workers. Of all employees, 1 888.7 thousand persons (74.2%) worked in the private sector, while 658.1 thousand (25.8%) worked in the public sector.

The number of employed persons aged 15 - 64 was 2 809.3 thousand. The employment rate for the same age group was 70.9% (74.2% for men and 67.5% for women).

The employment rate for the population in the age group 20 - 64 years was 77.0% (80.6% for men and 73.2% for women).

The employment rate for the population in the age group 55 - 64 years was 71.2% (75.5% for men and 67.0% for women).

In 2025 the number of economically active population aged 15 - 64 was 2 913.8 thousand and represented 73.5% of the population in the same age group. Compared with 2024, the activity rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points.

There were 1 049.9 thousand economically inactive persons aged 15 - 64, of whom 460.6 thousand men and 589.3 thousand women. The inactivity rate (15 - 64 years) was 26.5% (23.0% for men and 30.1% for women).

The number of discouraged persons aged 15 - 64 was 16.5 thousand, representing 1.6% of the economically inactive population in this age group.

The proportion of early leavers from education and training of the population aged 18 - 24 was 8.6%.

The proportion of the population aged 25 - 34, having completed tertiary education, was 41.2%.

The proportion of young people aged 15 - 29, neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET), was 13.8%.

Methodological notes

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a continuous sample survey providing quarterly and annual data on the economic activity of the population aged 15 and over. The survey covers non-institutional households. The households participating in the survey were randomly selected and were interviewed through a face-to-face interview.

Reference period - the characteristics of each interviewee refer to his/her status during a defined calendar week (from Monday to Sunday).

Economically active population (labour force) comprises all employed and unemployed persons.

Employed are persons aged 15 to 89 who, during the reference period:

• did some work for at least one hour for salary or other form of payment;
• did not work but had a job or business, from which they were temporarily absent due to holiday, illness, maternity leave, leave for looking after a child below the age of 2 years, flexible working time, work-related education or training as well as other absence if its duration is 3 months or less.

Unemployed are persons aged 15 to 74 who:

• did not work at all during the reference period;
• were actively looking for work during the preceding four weeks, including the reference one, or have found a job that is expected to start within 3 months following the reference period;
• were available to start working within two weeks following the reference period.

Long-term unemployed are persons who have been unemployed for one year or longer.

Economically inactive population (persons not in the labour force) includes persons aged 15 and over who were neither employed nor unemployed during the reference period, incl. all persons aged 90 and over.

Discouraged persons are persons not in the labour force, aged 15 to 74, who want to work but do not actively look for a job as they believe there is no suitable job available.

Activity rate - ratio between the economically active population and the total population (in the respective group).

Employment rate - ratio between the employed population and the total population (in the respective group).

Unemployment rate - ratio between the unemployed persons and the economically active population.

Long-term unemployment rate - ratio between the long-term unemployed persons and the economically active population.

Inactivity rate - ratio between the economically inactive population and the total population (in the respective group).

Early leavers from education and training - persons aged 18 to 24 who have completed at most lower secondary education and not received any (formal or non-formal) education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey.

People neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) are those who were not employed during the reference period (i.e. were unemployed or economically inactive) and at the same time did not receive any (formal or non-formal) education or training in the four weeks preceding the survey.

Average annual data are calculated as an average of the four quarters of the respective year.

Because of the rounding of the figures, some of the totals are not equal to the sum of the components.

More detailed data from the Labour Force Survey can be found on the website of NSI - www.nsi.bg/en, section ‘Labour Market’, Labour Force Survey and at the Information System INFOSTAT.

 Annex

Table 1