ZAGREB, March 7, 2018 – Online Vacancy Index (OVI), a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the Zagreb-based Institute of Economics (EIZ) in cooperation with the web portal MojPosao, shows that the index in February rose compared to February 2017, however, it fell compared to January 2018 as a result of slower GDP growth rate, the Institute reported on Wednesday.
“In February 2018, OVI rose by 28.9 percent when compared to the same month of the previous year, indicating continued strong growth in labour demand on an annual level. However, observed on a short-term basis, seasonally adjusted index values suggest that the number of job advertisements in February was lower than the month before by -0.7 percent. Considering that labour market indicators usually reflect GDP movements with a time lag, the lower OVI in February seems to be a consequence of the slower GDP growth rate, which amounted to only two percent in the fourth quarter of 2017, considerably below growth rates recorded in previous quarters,” the EIZ stated on its web site.
“In terms of occupations, the highest demand in February was recorded for sales assistants, cooks, waiters, programmers and drivers. Over a third of the job advertisements in February required secondary education level, while less than 10 percent required university degree level. Another indicator of slower growth is the fact that just 38 percent of the advertisements represented fixed-term employment, which is the lowest share in the last nine months.”
