Bulgarian university students focus on majors that are mostly out of touch with the needs of the national economy, according to a study of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA).

The connection between the business sector and the education in Bulgaria is becoming increasingly weaker and does not reflect the needs for qualified specialists in a number of industries, says the BIA analysis that has explored the Bulgarian labor force in 2005-2009.

"The employment structure in Bulgaria is concentrated on professions with lower qualification such as commerce, restaurant business, construction, and apparel and textile industries," the report concludes.

The share of Bulgarian students admitted to engineering and technology programs is on the decline every single year; the same goes for the future doctors, who share of the newly admitted university students dropped from 13% to 6% in the past five years.

Between 27% and 32% of those who graduated from high school and university in Bulgaria in the past few years are employed in commerce, followed by restaurant and hotel business, construction, security followed by teachers and accountants.

Bulgaria's share of the population with university degrees is found to be below the EU average, and BIA has hardly much optimism that it might catch up any time soon.

Bulgaria's early school dropout rate declined from 20.4% in 2005 to 14.8% in 2008, according to BIA, but is still far behind countries like Poland (5%), Slovenia (5.1%), the Czech Republic (5.6%), Slovakia (6%), Lithuania (7.4), or Finland (9.8%).

Bulgaria is found to be lagging desperately behind in the "life-long studying" programs in 2005-2009. The number of persons engaged in such programs in Bulgaria increased only slightly from 1.3% up to 1.4%; at the same time, the EU average declined slightly from 9.8% to 9.5%.

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