More foreign workers are coming to Bulgaria but there are still many vacancies

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More foreign workers are coming to Bulgaria but there are still many vacancies

Turks save seasonal employment, and Kyrgyz people are employed in hotels and restaurants, but this is not solving the personnel shortfall

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© Shutterstock


Balaji is from India and is visiting Bulgaria for a short time - he is here to train his colleagues from a large outsourcing company based in Sofia. He worries that the dialect in his country will soon disappear - it is spoken in a small province, by only 50 - 60 million people. For many of them, finding a job in India is difficult and sometimes almost impossible.

The country's population is one of the youngest in the world with an average age of around 30, which holds enormous potential. However, according to various expert estimates, the proportion of young unemployed Indians with higher education is over 29%, and this is a problem. That's why some of them are looking for work abroad. And Bulgaria offers good prospects, even for those with lower education levels. That is why quite a few of Balaji's compatriots are here, as well as thousands of workers from the former Soviet republics.

From Delhi to Sofia

For years, Bulgaria has not been able to cope with the shortage of qualified and - more recently - unqualified labor. On the one hand, many low-skilled workers from regions across the country have found better conditions (financially or socially) in other EU countries. Poor demographics and low birth rates have only exacerbated the situation. The potential of the migrants who passed through Bulgaria in recent years was largely untapped.

Although there is a certain "reserve" of unemployed people in the country (the official unemployment rate according to data from the Employment Agency as of May 2024 is 5.4%, or just over 154 thousand) these people have not filled the gaps. It remains the most serious in construction, tourism, pharmaceuticals, transport and other sectors. All this necessitates the importation of workers, and business sees the partnership with India - but not only India - as a good opportunity for replenishing the labor force.

Employers say the opportunity is not disadvantageous. They use the services of agencies specializing in "importing" workers from different countries. The fee for the agency is of the order of one salary, and even with the added obligation of providing accommodation for the foreign worker, the cost for employers is not greater than that for a Bulgarian worker.

How many foreigners work in Bulgaria, however, is difficult to say. The reason is the complex (and often cumbersome) registration procedure and the different employment regimes, which depend not only on the Employment agency, but also on the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior. Depending on the specifics of work, stay, citizenship, etc. foreigners can work both with a permit and with an issued registration or opinion. In order to receive approval, they go through various procedures to certify their current status.

A report for Capital.bg shows that in 2023 the agency "approved" nearly 11,500 foreigners to work in Bulgaria. Some of them received a work permit - more than 1,600 people, units came for freelance work, and the main group received a permit for short-term (up to 90 days) - about 4,200 people, or seasonal employment - just over 7,000 people.

According to the data, the most issued work permits in the year have received citizens of Turkey (1358), and the remaining countries have insignificant numbers. Workers are most often employed in the fields of construction and health care, etc.

Turkey and Kyrgyzstan also dominate seasonal and short-term workers, followed by Moldova, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Given the seasonal nature of their documents, they most often work in hotels and restaurants, in agriculture, construction, and trade, etc.

Dear neighbors

For the first six months of the year, the number of foreigners who have been approved for work in Bulgaria has slightly increased, but this is unlikely to solve the personnel crisis.

In the first half of 2024, about 10,300 people received the right to work, or 1,200 people more compared to the same period last year. The peak in the issuance of work documents is mainly in the first half of the year, which is understandable given the seasonal employment for which most requests are made. For the period, most foreign workers hailed from Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Moldova. The novelty comes in the shape of 850 workers from Nepal, and the "exotic" in the shape of seven Chinese and five Britons on a short-term business trip to Bulgaria.

Since the beginning of the year, the agency has not issued documents to workers from India, although, paradoxically, some businesses appear worried that Asians may "take over" some jobs. Such concerns were recently expressed by the National Association for the Protection of Carriers and Taxi Drivers regarding the plans of Plovdiv Municipality to increase the quota for the number of taxis from 2,000 to 2,200.

According to the agency's data for May, drivers are indeed among the most sought-after professionals. But salespeople, mining and processing, construction and transportation workers, waste collection workers, human care staff, machine operators of stationary machinery and equipment, cleaners and helpers, etc. are also needed.

Bank of personnel

The potential of personnel from Asian countries is huge, but according to official data, Bulgaria does not particularly benefit from it. One of the biggest exporters of labor is Vietnam, experts say, but not a single worker from there has come to Bulgaria since the beginning of the year. And for Bulgaria, Vietnamese workers are not new - before democracy, Bulgaria maintained active relations with the Asian country.

"At the time, about 70-80 thousand Vietnamese worked in Bulgaria. There are also many Vietnamese in the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, but also in Germany, where the salaries are higher. There are now few Vietnamese here," Prof. Bogdan Ugarchinski, president of Velgraf Group says. He is part of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria, and his company advises on the employment of foreigners. The company maintains contact with Ukraine, Vietnam, Armenia, India, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, where it has its own representative, with whom it works on the "import" of builders and agricultural workers within the framework of seasonal employment.

Importing labor into Bulgaria remains slow and difficult

According to the data of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the consultants from Human Power BG, more than 70% of employers have difficulty finding staff. There are companies where the production line is threatened by a lack of workers despite higher pay, says Human Power BG, which has been working in this area since 2021, with part of its focus on workers from Nepal, India and Bangladesh. They also comment that foreigners adapt quickly, speak English, but also have a desire to learn Bulgarian. The net pay they are looking for is around €500 - €700 depending on the position.

Balaji is from India and is visiting Bulgaria for a short time - he is here to train his colleagues from a large outsourcing company based in Sofia. He worries that the dialect in his country will soon disappear - it is spoken in a small province, by only 50 - 60 million people. For many of them, finding a job in India is difficult and sometimes almost impossible.

The country's population is one of the youngest in the world with an average age of around 30, which holds enormous potential. However, according to various expert estimates, the proportion of young unemployed Indians with higher education is over 29%, and this is a problem. That's why some of them are looking for work abroad. And Bulgaria offers good prospects, even for those with lower education levels. That is why quite a few of Balaji's compatriots are here, as well as thousands of workers from the former Soviet republics.

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