Bulgaria is deindustrializing and losing thousands of jobs

Between 2019 and 2023, 104,557 manufacturing jobs were lost in Bulgaria. This is 15% of the industrial workforce, said Plamen Dimitrov, president of the Confederation of Bulgarian Independent Unions (CITUB). At a press conference for the European Day of Action in Industry, which is celebrated on February 5, Dimitrov said that 13,000 jobs were lost in 2024. Data for 2025 are expected.

There is a decline in the relative share of industry in GDP creation, Dimitrov said. For 2025, this share is expected to be below 20 percent.

We have a model that is highly dependent on domestic consumption, which is 3/4 of our growth, said Luboslav Kostov, chief economist of the CITUB. Foreign direct investment is between 2 and 4 percent of Bulgaria's GDP.

According to the CITUB, a new industrial strategy is needed and they propose creating a fund to protect vulnerable industries.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

English: R. Petkova