The economic crisis has had a “devastating impact“ on the machine building sector in Bulgaria, according to Iliya Keleshev, head of the Bulgarian Branch Chamber for machine building.

In an exclusive interview for Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency), Keleshev announced that about 29 000 jobs had been lost in Bulgaria’s machine building sector since the crisis started in the fall of 2008.

Thus, of the 143 000 people employed in the sector in the first half of 2008, only 114 000 remained a year later.

“The greatest matter of concern is the fact that the number of qualified laborers is declining. In the “Production of Machines and Equipment” sub-sector, the number of qualified workers has dropped from 15 030 down to 10 421, whereas the number of machine operators declined from 12 570 to 9 995. It takes many years to create qualified laborers in the machine building sector. Once they leave it, they hardly return to the firm – some go into the gray economy, others go abroad, and still others are re-qualified but don’t come back. There is no data about that but probably no more than 1 in 4 are going to come back when the crisis is over,” Keleshev told Novnite.com.

He stressed the fact the Bulgarian state was supposed to help out the export-oriented firms retain their qualified staff amidst the raging crisis.

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