Despite numerous moves being attempted to be made by Croatia’s government and the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP), there’s sadly bad press for Croatia’s economy as countries like Romania put better measures in place.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 18th of June, 2019, according to Eurostat, Slovakia is the third highest country on the list in terms of wage and salary increases (around 9 percent), with Slovenia, the Baltic countries and the Czech Republic, where salaries have risen by about 8 percent a year, gaining on it.
For the past year, Romania has increased its average salaries by as much as 16 percent to stop its own labour force from leaving the country and to try to encourage more foreigners to come, as Ljubica Gatarić reports for Večernji list.
In March this year, the average gross salary in Romania jumped a little bit up from the 1,000 euro mark (more specifically to 1062), and the country, faced with its own demographic crisis, sought out labour from countries like Pakistan.
The powers that be in the two countries are now all set to sign a special agreement that will allow tens of thousands of Pakistani nationals to work as drivers, doctors, IT engineers and construction workers in Romania.
Romanian Ambassador to Pakistan, Niculai Goa, informed the Pakistani authorities that Romania will have to import as many as a million workers from different countries in the next few years to cover the country’s local workforce deficit.
Bulgarian employers are also worried about the same things. Bulgaria has seen a salary increase of about thirteen percent in one year, and as stated, according to Eurostat, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Baltic countries and the Czech Republic are doing well, with Slovakia introducing a 9 percent increase and the following countries introducing one of 8 percent.
The hourly wage in Croatia has risen by about five percent in a year, which is less than that of comparable transitional countries that are also opening up their doors for workers from countries such as Pakistan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Turkey, China, and so on.
The Croatian Chamber of Commerce and the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) are pushing for a new model for the employment of foreigners, which will enable companies to hire a foreigner automatically if they can’t find workers on the Croatian labour market. However, official statistical sources (Eurostat and CBS) point to a slowdown in the demand for a workforce in Croatia.
In the paradoxical country that is Croatia, where people can’t find work despite there apparently being many jobs available, and where employers also can’t manage to find staff to do that work, it’s difficult to say what the next move, if any, will be to try to increase wages enough to match other countries, some of which are typically considered to be less developed than Croatia.
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