Bulgarian Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov (in white) has defended the raising of the retirement age. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria’s unemployment rate is 9.62% as of May 28, 2010, announced Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov Sunday.
He revealed that according to most recent data about 2.7 million Bulgarians are currently employed, and about 200 000 are self-employed.
“Raising the retirement age will have both economic and social effects. If the current trends persist, in 40 years the number of the retired will be higher than the number of employed persons in the country. Still, it is an achievement that we managed to avoid having to raise taxes and insurance payment in this time of severe crisis,” the Minister stated speaking on the BNR.
He promised that the government will work to make pensions 65% of the salaries, and will consider tax cuts for employers so they can afford to pay the insurance and benefits of their workers.