On 8th of September 2012, some 100 young people gathered during the traditional socialist rally at the Koprivkite area, near Plovdiv, to talk about youth unemployment in discussion named “My future is your future” organized by the Youth Union of the Bulgarian Socialist Party - Plovdiv.

The participants said that young people are suffering more from the crisis than the rest of the active population. Since young people have less experience and practical knowledge they are usually the first to go during cuts and once they are unemployed they are less competitive.

The young people discussed the causes for youth unemployment. They pointed out that:

• the right-wing government lacks vision and priorities in its economic policies;
• the proposed solutions to the economic crisis failed to cushion the blows of the crisis on the labour market;
• young people do not have the appropriate skills and knowledge as a result of the problems in the system of secondary and tertiary education;
• the number of school dropouts is too high;
• there are no dedicated policies for the education of young people in disadvantaged groups and regions,
• the access to learning opportunities for young people is limited;
• young people find it hard to gain work experience and as a result their employment is usually precarious or they find themselves unemployed for long periods of time;
• active labour market policies are inadequate and not flexible enough.

The participants were prepared with suggestions on how to overcome these obstacles with simple legislative measures:

• Employers’ payments for social security insurance of newly hired young employees can be waived for a period from four to six months if these young employees sign a permanent contract at the end of the period;
• Employers can receive some tax exemptions if they provide scholarships for students. This will give the students the opportunity to gain practical knowledge and skills and the employers to “model” their own employees;
• Counting the years of higher education towards the length of work service required to receive pension.