A major new survey of hiring and firing trends in over 100 countries has found that Bulgaria has significantly reduced the number of managerial/professional staff being fired, despite the economic downturn.
According to the Global Snapshot report from international recruitment specialist, Antal, which surveyed employers in 107 countries around the world levels of recruitment in Bulgaria have changed dramatically since their previous quarter with hiring rates dropping from 89% to a low 28%. However, despite this large cut in the hiring of managerial and professional staff, the rate of current and future firing has dropped from a very high 49% to just 4% whilst none of the businesses questioned expressed an expectation that they would further reduce staffing levels in the coming quarter.
“Bulgaria’s job market has by no means gone untouched by the global changes taking place.”, says Julieta Sofranova who runs Antal’s operations in Bulgaria. “Organizations here are looking to hire less people in a managerial/professional level and make some necessary cut backs, but at the same time they are cutting back on the number of people they are letting go.”
Elsewhere in Eastern Europe the employment situation varies dramatically. 50% of businesses in Hungary, for example, expect to hire in the coming quarter, down from 59% in the autumn, whilst in Romania, however, hiring levels have actually increased from 37% to 54%. This confidence is mirrored in Croatia where recruitment levels are up from 41% to 58%.
“When we undertook our last survey of hiring and firing around the globe in the autumn of 2008, most countries appeared confident about the future. Now that confidence has faltered, but it seems, hasn’t evaporated completely,”says Antal’s global CEO, Tony Goodwin. “There is no denying that the slowdown in economies across the world has had a knockon effect on jobs and career development prospects for professionals and managers at all levels. However this does not mean that recruitment has come to a complete stop by any means. Rather than being a classic downturn, this one seems to be developing a very specific nature, which hits certain countries and sectors extremely hard whilst leaving other parts of Eastern Europe and industries such as pharmaceuticals, biotech and renewables, for example relatively or even completely unscathed.”
A survey of hiring and firing trends in key employment markets around the world, click here to view the Global Snapshot
Antal International Network, Bulgaria
Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
Office Vitosha: 82 Vitosha Blvd
Office Dunav: 200A, Slivnitsa Blvd
Phone: +359 (2) 952 3660
Phone: +359 (2) 983 1160
Email: bulgaria@antal.com
