September the 4th, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic hit the Croatian economy, which relies very heavily on tourism, like a tonne of bricks. While things have been far from easy over the last eighteen or so months, the OVI Index (Online Vacancy Index) provides strong hope for Croatian economic revival.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Crnjak writes, demand for labour in the Republic of Croatia exceeded the levels of 2020 and 2019 according to the OVI index, which, for the month of August 2021, shows that the demand for labour in the country is 60 percent higher than it was back in August 2020, and about 20 percent higher than in pre-pandemic August 2019.
The Institute of Economics announced the above, noting that the latest values of the OVI Index are in line with other positive economic indicators that have come to the attention of the general public over recent weeks. Croatian economic revival has undoubtedly been helped enormously by a remarkably good summer tourist season, which just keeps on going.
The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) is a monthly index of online job vacancies developed at the Institute of Economics in cooperation with the popular Croatian MojPosao (MyJob) portal, and is created by simply counting the number of unique new ads whose application deadlines end within the month for which the index is calculated.
"When comparing the level of demand for labour this year and that of 2019, this is the fourth consecutive month in which the demand for labour has exceeded the pre-pandemic months, which is a strong signal of Croatian economic revival and the recovery of the labour market. Demand for work in the three traditionally most sought-after occupations - salesman, waiter and chef - is also growing compared to August 2019 and 2020, and driver and construction workers stand out from the more sought-after occupations.
It is also interesting to note that since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the share of job advertisements that mention work from home ranges to approximately 1.5 to 2 percent of all advertisements, which is an increase when compared to the period before the pandemic when work from home was mentioned in less than 0.25 percent of job advertisements,'' stated EIZ analysts.
For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.
