Half of Bulgarian employers plan to raise wages in H2 - ManpowerGroup
Around half of Bulgarian employers plan to hike wages by up to 20% in the second half of the year, a survey by recruitment company ManpowerGroup Bulgaria showed.
Shortage of staff is the main reasons for the expected wage increase, the company said on Monday.
The highest salary hike is expected in the IT sector, where around two-thirds of employers plan an increase of 10-20%. The consulting sector comes second, with 58% of respondents planning a rise, followed by 49% in production and 44% in commerce.
"We are observing an interesting trend of alignment of wage levels in Sofia and the rest of the country - a development largely caused by the opportunity for remote work, which has become the norm in the last year," Maria Stoeva, sales and business development manager in ManpowerGroup Bulgaria, was quoted as saying.
The highest wage increase is expected in Sofia, Burgas, and Varna, where employers forecast a rise of 10-20%, followed by Plovdiv with an expected 10% increase.
The majority of employers, 76%, do not foresee any significant changes in employee benefits. However, around one-fourth of respondents plan to add benefits to the monthly packages or increase the size of existing ones.
The survey results are based on feedback from 513 respondents from 12 business sectors.