As much as I don't like that policy, it's the same in the US. If an employer wants to hire a foreign employee, they have to prove that there's no US citizen who could do the job. There are industries which suffer from that because they can't find enough Americans to fill in their job vacancies, even in the present economic situation, but it's been this way for a long time. Bulgaria is not the only EU country with that policy either. It can be next to impossible to get a teaching job in a state school in quite a few European countries if you aren't their citizen. As I said, I don't like it, but it comes as no surprise to me.