“The labor market at the beginning of 2021 still proves to be under the strong influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures designed to curb the pandemic. OVI index for January 2021 shows that labor demand was 33 percent lower than in January 2020, which is the biggest drop since May 2020, caused by stronger restrictions of the economic activity,” EIZ said on its web site.
In December 2020, OVI fell by 25%, November by 30%, October by 21.5%, September by 27.8%, July by 18% and in June by 26% due to restrictions during the pandemic. The most extreme drop in OVI was recorded in May (57.4%) and April (74.7%).
Huge drop in demand in the services sector
Labour demand for occupations in the service sector, which are traditionally the most sought after – sales person, cooks and waiters – was 54%, 76% and 90% lower respectively in January 2021 year on year.
However, some occupations recorded a significant increase in demand, with the demand for teachers, doctors and dentists doubling y-o-y. Demand for construction and mechanical engineers rose by 64% and 20% respectively.
A noticeable fall in demand for student and seasonal jobs evidently fell by as much as 72%, while fixed-term and permanent contracts dropped by 25% compared to January 2020.
The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the Institute of Economics, Zagreb in cooperation with the web portal MojPosao.
