The Republic of Croatia is at the very top of the list of European Union countries in terms of the number of temporary employees, according to a new Eurostat survey for the year 2019.
As Novac writes on the 20th of June, 2020, as many as 18 percent of Croats, in the total number of employees working with temporary employment contracts, seasonally or through an employment agency. The share of temporary workers is higher only in Spain (24 percent), Poland (21 percent) and in Portugal (19 percent).
At the same time, Croatia is the only country in the whole of the European Union in which significantly more Croats are employed in temporary work positions compared to foreign nationals working in Croatia. In other words, out of one hundred employees born in Croatia, 18 of them are employed in temporary positions, while when it comes to the same number of employed foreigners (born outside of Croatia and the EU) only 14 of them work temporarily.
This is a completely reverse trend when compared to all other European Union countries in which, on average, almost a quarter (22 percent) of foreign nationals work in temporary positions and 13 percent of the domicile population are employed.
The trend of high temporary (or occasional) employment of Croatian nationals can be partly explained by the fact that European statisticians take the data for seasonal jobs into their calculations. Namely, a large number of Croats are employed exclusively during the summer tourist season, mostly in the catering, tourism and hospitality sector.
As far as European Union countries in Croatia’s immediate area are concerned, Eurostat’s report shows that the share of temporarily employed Italians stands at 16 percent, Slovenes 12 percent, and Hungarians a little more than five percent. The share of foreigners employed on temporary contracts in Italy is over 20 percent, in Slovenia almost 15 percent, and in Hungary a little more than 10 percent.
Germany, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Malta, for example, all have a similar share of foreign temporary workers as Croatia does (all at around 15 percent). However, a smaller percentage of the domicile population in those countries work in temporary jobs. 11 percent in Slovenia do so, nine percent in Germany, seven percent in the Czech Republic and five percent in Malta.
On the other hand, the largest share of those born outside the European Union and who are employed on temporary contracts is in Poland (53 percent), followed by Spain (38 percent), Cyprus (33 percent), Portugal (29 percent), Sweden (26 percent) and the Netherlands (25 percent).
The lowest share, on the other hand, was recorded in Estonia (2 percent), followed by Latvia (4 percent), Austria (8 percent) and Ireland (10 percent). However, in all these countries, the employment of the domicile population on temporary contracts is either lower or at the same level.
According to the explanation, the Eurostat survey serves, among other things, to compare the position of migrants in relation to the domicile population, but also to monitor the success of European Union policies in regard to the integration of migrants.
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