NSI: For four years, half of the Bulgarian enterprises haven’t hired new people

National Statistics has launched another survey on the demographics of Bulgarian enterprises. By the end of 2016, nearly 350,000 enterprises had been operating in Bulgaria.

Almost half of the actually operating enterprises - 48.7% - haven’t hired people between 2012 and 2016. This shows a survey of the National Statistical Institute (NSI). Practically, this means that 169,625 companies didn’t look for workers during the period under review. On second place in the research are enterprises that have hired up to four people. The lowest share is of those, who have hired more than ten people.

New enterprises for four years period are 12.2% of all working companies in Bulgaria. Most of the new companies have emerged in the trade sector, and the least in the mining industry. Interestingly, statistics show that the trend of not employing new people also applies to newly established companies. Over 68% of them did not employ anyone during the period under review.

National statistics have also explored how many of the enterprises created in 2015 have survived. In the first year of their life they are over 80% of the companies, mostly those with more than 10 or more employees. Interestingly, the highest share of surviving companies is in the “Transport” sector, and the lowest in the “Production and distribution of electricity and heat” sector.

"By moving away from the year of birth, there is a tendency of decreasing the number of surviving enterprises", the NSI said. Their data shows the same. The share of enterprises that have been able to work five years after their establshment is only 4.7%.

The NSI has also done a research in the so-called "dead enterprises". The latest valid data are from 2015 due to their slow closure and coverage in statistics. Closed companies three years ago are nearly 35,000 or 10% of all operating companies in Bulgaria. The largest number of closed companies are the ones, involved in repairing of cars and motorcycles.