ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the regional labour market developments and institutions in Bulgaria. It outlines some main changes in the economic and institutional framework during the transition as a context for regional labour market developments. The chapter describes some changes on the labour market, and presents the establishment and development of labour market institutions. It examines the basic features of the employment policy and the labour market effects of the institutional changes. The starting conditions for the reform in Bulgaria were very unfavourable. This includes a centralised system of management with almost an entire state property of the means of production, an inefficient production structure and non-competitive products on foreign markets, an irrational employment structure, an unilateral foreign trade orientation and a considerable foreign debt and budget deficit. The dynamics of the labour market in Bulgaria are clearly connected to the transition to the market economy.
