In the past three years, around 5000 small and medium-sized enterprises in the chemical industry went bankrupt, and around 10% of the people working in the sector were laid off, according to Yoncho Pelovski, Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Chemical Industry.

Pelovski presented an analysis of the development of the sector on Monday, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

He explained that high energy costs and shrinking markets were the main reasons for the bankruptcies and some of the lay-offs could be attributed to the introduction of new technologies.

Pelovski made clear that chemical industry companies, except for pharmaceutical firms, provided employment for 40 000 people.

He informed that the sector mostly needed machine operators - secondary education specialists and chemical engineers.

He pointed out that demand for such specialists was expected to increase over the next 5-6 years due to the anticipated retirement of the people currently employed in the sector.

Pelovski also added environmental engineers and software engineers to the list of sought-after jobs in the chemical industry, adding that the forecast matched global trends.

The Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian Chamber of Chemical Industry said that experts anticipated an annual growth by around 2% in the sector in 2013 and the level was expected to remain unchanged in 2014.

He said that the analysis of the Bulgarian Chamber of Chemical Industry indicated no outflow of foreign investors from the sector but noted that no foreign investors were expected to set foot on the local market either.