Bulgaria is one of the countries with the largest decline in employment in 2020, according to Eurostat data. Last year, the share of employees in the age group 20-64 years in Bulgaria reached 73.4%, which is a decrease of 1.6 points compared to the data for 2019.

Only Ireland (down from 1.7 percentage points to 73.4%) and Spain (down from 2.3 percentage points to 65.7%) are ahead of us.

In general, the labor market last year was completely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Eurostat data. Only in three countries is there an increase in employment and this is most visible in Malta (growth from 0.6 percentage points to 77.4%) and Poland (+0.6 percentage points to 73.6%), as well as in Croatia (+0.2 percentage points to 66.9%).

On average in the EU, employment in the age group 20-64 is 72.4%, which is a decrease of 0.7 points compared to the level of 2019.

The decline is more pronounced for men – employment reached 78.1% compared to 79% a year earlier. For women in 2020, employment will decrease from 67.3% to 66.8%, the data show. Thus, the employment gap between men and women in the EU narrows to 11.3 points.

The highest employment rate is in the EU in Sweden – almost 81 percent of people of active working age have a job. At the opposite pole is Greece, where employment reaches only 61.1%.