IT specialists are said to find work most easily both in Bulgaria and in the EU. This is what the manager of one of the biggest recruitment websites, Plamen Vushev, announced recently. IT specialists are hardest to find, for they can choose from various offers. This tendency shall continue in the near future, foresees Mr. Vushev. Mr. Tomcho Tomov from the Bulgarian Industrial Association quoted BUSINESSEUROPE forecast that in five years Germany will suffer a shortage of about 50 000 IT specialists, while the UK will be hit even harder by a shortage of 70 000 IT specialists.

This is true generally for the people of so-called STEM skills - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Europe has already calculated that in five years time the EU will lack al least 700 000 specialists in computer science, engineers, mathematicians and all other experts involving STEM skills. In other words, at least one fifth of the EU job places will be short in workforce. The Bulgarian Industrial Association warns that this automatically means that emigration will continue to rise and deprive our local labour market of skilled workers.

Mr. Plamen Vushev argues that the main challenge before Bulgaria is the lack of skilled workers in the IT industry. It is highly probable that world-known giant companies open up branches in Bulgaria but if they fail to find qualified and suitable workforce here, they may certainly move to other regions of the world which can offer them the necessary specialists.

According to the Bulgarian Industrial Association one in two employers faces serious challenges in finding STEM specialists. BIA also maintains that the domestic picture is not much different and the demand for STEM workers will continue to grow by one-fifth a year. Nevertheless, the universities tend cut the number of students admitted in those deficit majors while at the same time increase the number of places in majors which the industry finds redundant.

Tomcho Tomov claims that the vocational education and training system and the secondary education in general also pour out irrelevant specialties such as Management educational pathway which is widely popular among high school students.

Society in general and educational system in particular failed to turn education into an attractive asset which guarantees high living standard, BIA further maintains. Fewer and fewer young Bulgarians want to study and a disturbing number of them are satisfied with elementary education or none at all. Graduates in the European Union make 26.9% of the labour market on average, while in Bulgaria the number of graduates is 1.14 million equating to 22%. High-school graduates are 2.5 million, 178 000 have only elementary education, while 100 140 are illiterate.    

There are serious challenges in engineering specialties at lower levels as well. Lift or refrigerator technicians, air conditioning technicians or even welders are hard to find. Tomcho Tomov argues that despite the glaring problems of Bulgarian labour market, there is still no system for forecasting workforce demand and supply.