Bulgaria Pays Fourth Most Generous Unemployment Benefits - OECD

Bulgaria is among the world's top ten of countries with generous unemployment benefits, according to data of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

Bulgaria is the fourth best country to lose a job, according to the OECD benefits calculator, as cited by Canadian Huffington Post and Bulgarian Sega daily.

In Bulgaria, according to the OECD, an unemployed person is paid 75.8% of the average salary.

The number represents the portion of your salary you would receive in unemployment benefits for the first month of joblessness.

It is based on the amount for a single person with no dependents who was earning the country's average salary.

According to OECD data cited by Huffington Post, some of the world's wealthiest countries are also the skimpiest when it comes to helping out the unemployed.

The best country to lose a job is Latvia, where unemployment benefits amount to 86.7% of the average salary, followed by Israel with 86%.

Australia is cited as the worst country in the developed world for unemployed.

In Australia, a single person with no children who collects unemployment benefits will receive only 28.9% of the income they earned while employed, assuming they earned an average salary.

However, Sega daily cautions, OECD data is based on the compensation received on first month of joblessness, which in Bulgaria's case is paid by the employer and is equal to the last salary.

After the first month, the unemployment benefits depend on the insurable earnings, and in 2011 it was only 36% of the country's average salary

The most recent data of the OECD is for 2010.