er
one-fourth was occupied in food processing and textile production (see
Organization and Structure, this ch.).

By far the largest proportion of women workers--26 percent of their
total number--were employed in the textiles and clothing branches of
industry, where they constituted 77 percent of total employment. Women
constituted the majority of workers in food processing--53 percent--and
accounted for 21 percent of the workers in machine building and
metalworking. Substantial numbers of women were also employed in
chemical and rubber plants, in logging and woodworking, and in the
production of leather shoes and furs. Four-fifths of all women working
in industry were in blue-collar jobs.

According to official statistics, 95 percent of the workers in 1971 were
directly engaged in production; the rest were employed in various
auxiliary occupations, such as maintenance and warehousing. Yet in
outlining means for raising industrial labor productivity in the fall of
1972, the minister of labor and social welfare included as an objective
a reduction in the proportion of auxiliary personnel to about 30 or 35
percent of the number of production workers in industry. About 17
percent of the production workers were in white-collar jobs; information
on the total number of white-collar workers has not been published.

The majority of industrial workers are paid on a piecework basis, but
the importance of piecework has been declining and has varied widely
among industrial branches. In 1971 almost 62 percent of the workers were
paid on this basis--a significantly smaller proportion than the 80
percent of workers remunerated in this manner in 1957. The proportion of
workers employed on the piecework basis in 1971 was highest in the
manufacture of clothing--89.5 percent--and lowest in the production of
coal and petroleum--25.2 percent. In construction, 84.6 percent of the
workers were paid on the piecework basis.

The average annual wage of all industrial workers in 1971 was 1,526
leva, compared to an average of 962 leva in 1960. On the whole, wages of
production workers were somewhat higher than wages of auxiliary
personnel, and the pay of white-collar production workers was higher
than that of blue-collar workers. The average wage of workers in
capital goods industries was 21 percent higher than the wage of workers
in consumer goods industries. The wage was highest in mining and lowest
in manufacturing. Within the state industr