Bulgaria has lowest share of employed young people in the EU

The share of employed people aged 20–29 in Bulgaria remains among the lowest in the EU. In 2025, 52.7% of people in this age group were employed, compared to an EU average of 65.6%. At the same time, employers continue to report a chronic labour shortage. The problem lies in the way young people transition from education to employment, Adrian Nikolov writes in an analysis by the Institute for Market Economics, published on ime.bg.

In many European economies, it is common for young people to work part-time, complete paid internships, or take part in forms of training closely linked to employers. In Bulgaria, however, the share of young people aged 15–29 who both study and work is just 3.1%, compared to an EU average of 11.6%. In the Netherlands, this share is 36.4%, while in Germany it is 19%. The problem is evident in both higher and vocational education, the analyst notes.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov