In 1992 there was a labour force of 3.613 million, 3.113 million of whom were in employment - 2.653 million in the state and co operative sector and 439,000 in the private sector. The unemployment rate in April 1994 was 16.1 per cent. The main language is Bulgarian, a Slavic tongue written in Cyrillic script. Other languages spoken in some areas are Turkish and Greek. Among the business community there is much enthusiasm to learn English and German.
Many people also have a working knowledge of Russian and French.
The lev is divided into 100 stotinki. 1993 annual rate 72 per cent.