In 2025, people working in Bulgaria from non-EU countries increased by 14.5%

In 2025, permits for access to the Bulgarian labor market were granted to 46,000 foreign workers from 86 countries. For comparison, in 2024 they were 34,720, Atanaska Todorova, the chief expert on "Labor Market" at the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions, told BNR.

"First of all, foreign workers come from Uzbekistan. Next come India, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan," the expert said, adding that in 2025, permits for the most highly qualified personnel with the so-called EU Blue Card were 930, while in 2024 they were 1,100.

Meanwhile, the Expert Club for Economics and Politics recommends that the quotas for the import of workers from non-EU countries be reduced to 10% of the staff for large enterprises and 25% for small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently, the ratio is 20% and 35%, and it is proposed to increase it.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

English: R. Petkova