Demand for seasonal workers is high but there’s a deficit when it comes to skilled cooks and waiters
If growing demand for seasonal workers is to be used as an indicator then we have a great tourist season ahead of us. As reported by Novi List on March 8, 2016, only in Rijeka employers were advertising 1400 seasonal jobs.
“This is a dramatic increase, considering that last year in March there were only 364 job posts so right now they are looking for 1036 employees more than just 12 ago” states the head of the Rijeka branch office of the Croatian employment office Jadranka Tomašić.
Even though they still don’t have the exact data for February, Rijeka office states that some seasonal workers have already signed their contracts and while some have already started working, others will start on May 1 and some are still going through the selection process.
The most advertised job opening is that of a tourist animator with more than 450 job posts. In January, employers were looking for 247 chambermaids and 169 waiters followed by cleaners, cooks, sales persons, kitchen staff, receptionists, pastry chefs etc…
Jadran d.d. from Crikvenica has the largest number of opened positions, followed by LRH Opatija and Imperial Rab – together they are looking for over 1000 seasonal workers, and most of these companies are not using the Croatian Employment office proving that the demand is even greater than officially advertised.
“We don’t have job advertisements when it comes to seasonal workers, we accept CVs all year round. Cooks, waiters, receptionists, cleaning staff, chambermaids and similar positions open during the season. We have 140 full-time employees in the company and during the season that number goes up to 450, even 500 this summer” said the President of the Board of Jadranka hoteli Dino Manestar adding that all interested candidates can always contact their HR department.
Liburnija Riviera Hotels in Opatija will employ 450 seasonal workers in 2016. They published all job ads in February and, as they say, it is hard to find self-sufficient cooks and waiters. Most job enquiries sent to their HR department are for supporting staff. Hotel Imperial in Rab will employ up to 300 seasonal workers out of which 100 are from the island Rab while others are from Bjelovar and Slavonija.
“These are our permanent seasonal workers, they come back every year. That suits us because we educated them and we don’t have to train them every season. We extend their contracts each year and it’s a well-established cooperation” says the director of hotel Imperial Vlado Miš.
In the largest hotel company in Croatia, Valamar, they are planning to employ 400 seasonal workers just on island Krk while the total number of seasonal workers in all other Valamar destinations (Poreč, Rabac, Dubrovnik) will reach 3 000 in high season.
