Croatian jobs being lost with the global downturn in the oil industry.
The crisis of global oil business is taking its toll on Croatian seamen. While it is difficult to estimate the exact number of seamen who have lost their jobs, it is certain that the figure is in thousands. Most of the job losses have taken place in the offshore market, since a large number of ships used to supply oil platforms are now tied at ports around the world in anticipation of recovery, reports Novlist on December 17, 2015.
Mario Zorović, president of Croatian Association of Intermediaries in the Employment of Seamen, believes that of 18,000 Croatian seamen, about 15 percent are employed in sectors related to the off-shore business.
“We are talking about ships which supply platforms and other ships which support off-shore businesses. We have a large number of inquiries by sailors who have lost their jobs and are now trying to find new jobs, which is not easy because there is a general crisis which began in 2008. It is impossible to predict how long this situation could last. The fact is that oil tankers are still being built, and that prominent consulting companies predict that by 2020 there will be a shortage of about 20,000 seamen. Therefore, I believe that the crisis should not last long”, Zorović explained.
Ino Munitić, director of the Pasat Seamen Agency, also confirms that many sailors have lost their jobs. “We have lost about 90 people, which in our case is between 50 to 60 percent of all seamen employed in the off-shore business. The situation is such that company owners were unable to hire vessels, because there is no more work, no drilling on platforms. We have a lot of companies which have built too many ships, which are now in ports with a minimum number of crew members in order to reduce the losses. It is difficult to assess how many Croatian seamen have lost their jobs, but the assumption is that we have between 15,000 to 20,000 seamen. If there are 8,000 seamen connected with off shore activities, I believe that 50 percent of them have lost their jobs, which is a large number and shows that the situation is really difficult”, Munitić said.
