Unexpectedly good news from Croatian labour market.
In the last three months, the number of workers for whom employers pay social contributions has increased by 41,000 – there are now 1,449,000 employed persons. The biggest jump was recorded in the month of April, in which the Croatian Institute for Pension Insurance recorded 25,000 new policyholders, reports Poslovni.hr on May 5, 2016.
The increase in the number of insured persons is in accordance with the number of unemployed people announced by the Croatian Employment Service, which has decreased by 45,000 people. Compared to January, when there were 293,000 persons unemployed, now there are 248,000 unemployed persons – which is the lowest number since July 2009. Croatia has therefore approached the pre-crisis levels, at least by the number of unemployed persons. However, the number of employed person is still 150,000 below the level recorded in 2008. Part of the difference can probably be explained with retirements, while some of workers moved abroad, and some simply stopped looking for work.
After six years of falling employment, last year was the first in which there was a slight increase in the number of employed persons, by 1.7 percent. The developments in the first four months of 2016 confirm that this was not a short-lived trend and that the labour market is finally getting better. Although some of the change can be attributed to seasonal employment, there are positives signs for permanently-employed people as well.
Croatia has unemployment rate which is three times as high as in the Czech Republic, which is the most successful transition country. The is a result of a number of policies and processes, because Croatia in the period from 2003 to 2015 had an average rate of GDP growth of only one percent, while most other countries of Central and Southeast Europe grew three to four times faster than Croatia.
Except for Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, all other new EU countries have recorded large labour migrations. That probably also affected the statistics on unemployment, since the European Commission estimates that in the first six years of EU membership Croatia will lose between 166,000 and 219,000 workers. More precise data exists only for Germany, where last year about 50,000 Croatians moved in, while around 13,000 Croatian citizens moved out of the country.
