The employment rate for the age group 20 - 64 years in Bulgaria was 67.1% last year, increasing by 2 percentage points compared with 2014, the National Statistical Institute (NSI) announced on Tuesday.

The employment rate for this age group increased by 2.3 percentage points for men and by 1.8 percentage points for women, reaching 70.4% and 63.8% , respectively, the NSI said in an annual Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The employment rate for the age group 55 - 64 was 53%, three percentage points higher than in 2014.

There were a little more than three million employed people in Bulgaria last year, representing 49% of the population aged 15 and over.

The economically active population aged 15 - 64 was 3.28 million, or 69.3% of the total population in this age group last year. The activity rate in this age group edged up by 0.3 percentage points compared with 2014. 

There were 2.97 million employed people aged 15 – 64 last year. The employment rate for the same age group was 62.9% (65.9% for men and 59.8% for women).

Unemployed people totalled 305,000 last year (174,000 men and 130,900 women).

The unemployment rate fell by an average 2.3 percentage points year-on-year, reaching 9.1% in 2015. The decrease was 2.5 percentage points for men and 2.0 percentage points for women, taking the unemployment rate for these two groups to 9.8% and 8.4%, respectively.

The unemployment rate for the age group 15 - 24 years was 21.6%, and for the age group 15 - 29 years it was 14.4%, decreasing by 2.2 points and 3.3 points respectively, compared to 2014.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a continuous sample survey providing quarterly and annual data on the economic activity of the population aged 15 and over. The survey covers non-institutional households.