15.04.2021
GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO STARTED WORK IN MARCH
In March 2021, the number of unemployed who started work was 6,917 more than in February of the same year, reaching 25,147, according to the data from the administrative statistics of the Employment Agency, the Agency announced.
A total of 433 people are from the group of pensioners, students and employees, who have also found their new jobs through employment offices. Despite the restrictions and closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, labor demand increased during the month, according to the Employment Agency.
A total of 78 percent of those who started working in March are employed in the real economy, most of whom are employed in the manufacturing sector - 21.5 percent, followed by trade - 13.9 percent, hotels and restaurants – 10.5 percent, general government - 8.9 percent, agriculture, forestry and fisheries - 7 percent, construction - 5.4 percent, human health and social work - 4.5 percent, etc.
The data show that 5520 unemployed people from the risk groups were employed in subsidized jobs during the month - 801 under employment programs and measures and 4719 - under schemes of the Operational Program "Human Resources Development" (OP HRD). The "Employment for you" scheme under the HRD OP, which started in July 2020 as an anti-crisis measure, has provided employment to a total of 18,695 people, and only in March employment contracts were concluded with 4,067 new unemployed.
The administrative statistics of the Employment Agency report a decrease of 0.4 percent of the registered unemployment compared to the previous month. The decline on an annual basis is by 0.2 percentage points - from 6.7 percent in March 2020 to 6.5 percent at the end of March this year. The registered unemployed in the labor offices are 214,052, which is 11,229 less than in February and 6,020 less than in March 2020.
During the month, 25,179 new unemployed people were registered in the labor offices, which is 282 more than in February and 13,690 less than the number of newly registered in March 2020.
Another 687 people from the groups of jobseekers, students and retirees also registered with the Employment Agency during the month. In order to preserve employment, the anti-crisis measures for short-term employment support continue to work - the well-known "60/40" and the project "Short-term employment support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic" under the OP HRD.
In March, nearly 160,000 employees were supported under these measures. The Save Me measure, funded by the HRD OP and the React-EU financial mechanism, to support employees in forced unpaid leave imposed by the suspension of a number of economic activities in order to control the COVID-19 pandemic, provided funds during the month. 50,000 employees.
The demand for labor is growing, as the declared jobs on the primary labor market in March were 18,452 or 4,983 (37 percent) more than the previous month.
The largest share of vacancies in the real economy is in manufacturing (26.7 percent), followed by hotels and restaurants (13.9 percent), trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (10.5 percent), government (9.5 percent), rural, forestry and fisheries (9.1 percent) and administrative and support service activities (6.3 percent).
The most sought after professions during the month are:
- staff employed in the field of personal services;
- staff caring for people;
- drivers of motor vehicles and mobile equipment;
- machine operators of stationary machines and equipment;
- workers in the mining and processing industry;
- construction and transport, metallurgists;
- machine builders and related craftsmen;
- sellers, waste collection workers and related workers;
- installers, workers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries and others.
