The number of people employed in Bulgaria is expected to rise by between 0.6% and 0.7% on the year in 2011, local media reported on Monday.
"I can calmly say that the forecast for next year is optimistic. Because we expect employment to increase by an annual 0.6%-0.7% on average, or by 22,000 people," Bulgaria's Labour Minister Totyu Mladenov told state-run news agency BTA in an interview.
The number of people employed in Bulgaria has been rising in the second and third quarter of 2010, reaching 3.1 million people at the end of September, which is 92,200 more people than in the beginning of the year, Mladenov added.