Targeting Youth Employment Policy in Bulgaria

Youth unemployment and in particular long-term youth unemployment in Bulgaria is much higher than the EU average. Low flows out of unemployment into a job, especially for the least educated and qualified young people residing in peripheral regions, are the principal source of long-term unemployment amongst young people. Evidence based on various data sources suggests on one hand that the most disadvantaged segments of the young population are left with two equally unsatisfactory alternatives: working in the informal sector and thus, in practice, often permanently withdrawing from the labour force, or emigrating. On the other hand, employment policies face significant financial and institutional constraints. Increasingly, with rising overall unemployment, passive policy is absorbing an increasing proportion of expenditure on labour market policy to the detriment of active policies. Moreover, important segments of young people are being bypassed by those active measures that do exist. An appropriate response requires action at the level of the education system as well as a more extensive and more effective active labour market policy. This paper concludes with some suggestions as to the way in which such policies might be developed.