| Bulgaria's unemployment rate lowest in 16 years |
SOFIA, Aug. 15 -- Bulgaria's unemployment rate in July has dropped to its lowest since 1990, Bulgarian Labor and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate in July was just 8.96 percent, much better than projected, as it was close to the 9-percent average level of the 25 countries in the European Union (EU).
Maslarova said it was normal to reach better employment indicators in the summer season as many people could find seasonal jobs by the seaside. Unemployment rate of the country's Black Sea city of Varna, for example, was just 2.89 percent.
However, Bulgarians should be glad to know that the trend of a decreasing rate of unemployment has been steady since the beginning of the year, Maslarova added, "this allows us to expect an annual unemployment rate for the whole of 2006 of only 11 percent."
She also stressed that this was good news for the country's planned accession to the EU on Jan. 1, 2007.
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