March the 22nd, 2023 - As is the norm in the spring because of the hunt for seasonal workers, the picture offered on a county by county basis by Croatian unemployment records is staggered, with some counties experiencing large declines and others stagnancy and increases.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, quite traditionally at this time of the year, the domestic labour market is usually under the influence of increased seasonal employment, meaning that the number of unemployed individuals registered in the records of the Croatian Employment Service (CES) has decreased by about 3,500 over the last 20 days of March, down to the current 14,400.

Over more recent days, the aforementioned institute published a detailed picture of developments from within the Croatian unemployment records over the first two months of 2023. About 188,000 registered unemployed people at the end of February compared to the previous month means a drop of almost 4,400, and on the annual level, the number of unemployed individuals stood at about 12,500.

Although the number of unemployed women remains higher than the number of unemployed men, in year-on-year comparisons, a stronger decline has been recorded among women (11.7 vs. 6.8%). Percentage-wise, in that year unemployment decreased the most, by about 15 percent, among the older age groups (from 50 to 54 and from 55 to 59 years old), while for example, the rate of reduction among people between the ages of 25 and 29 years stood at 6.4%.

If employment trends are observed by level of education, in annual comparisons held in Croatian unemployment records, there are more unemployed people, and that's only slightly, only among those without school diplomas and among those who didn't complete elementary school, and the largest decrease has been recorded among those with a university education (more precisely a decrease of 12.6%) .

Likewise, out of a total of 21 counties, only three of them (Varazdin County, Medjimurje County and Virovitica-Podravina County) had more people registered as unemployed back at the end of last month than they did one year before, and the institute recorded the biggest relative decline in Vukovar-Srijem (by almost 20%) and in Lika-Senj County (-17%).

Back during February, 11,000 people registered with the CES unemployment register, or ten percent less than in the same month last year, and at the same time, 21% more, or about 15,400 people, left it. The majority of them left that status due to gaining employment. In that group, the largest number of people were employed in public administration, trade, processing industry and the tourism, hospitality and catering sector.

Based on other business activities, more than 460 people left the records of the enemployed last month. In the case of more than half of them, the reason was starting their own business by registering a trade or freelance profession, a fifth of them founded a company, and a quarter of them had their status terminated because they earn monthly income from another independent activity that exceeded the amounts of monetary benefits they're entitled to from the state for the year 2022. In the case of the other slightly more than 4,000 persons, deletions from the unemployment register are the result of retirement, non-compliance with legal provisions, self-deregistration from the register, and so on.

For more, check our our news section.

May the 13th, 2022 - The number of individuals registered as unemployed at the Croatian Employment Service dropped by an encouraging 20 percent back in April, which, while hope giving, occurs annually due to Croatia's seasonality when it comes to labour.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, back the end of April this year, 118,922 unemployed persons were registered officially in the records of the Croatian Employment Service (CES), which is a decrease of 5.3 percent on a monthly basis and 20 percent on an annual basis, according to the Croatian Emplotment Service's data.

April is the third month in a row in which the number of unemployed people across the Republic of Croatia continued to fall on a monthly basis, and when compared to March, there are 6,682 fewer of them registered with the aforementioned institution.

The Croatian Employment Service's data shows that, under the influence of the typical seasonal trends which take place annually on the Croatian labour market with regard to the needs of the tourism sector and preparations for the height of the summer tourist season, this marked decline in the number of unemployed people will more than likely continue throughout the month of May.

Namely, 114,163 unemployed persons are currently registered at the Croatian Employment Service, which is 4,759 people less than were registered there back at the end of April. Currently, 23,024 vacancies have been announced at the Croatian Employment Service, and their statistics show that the number of registered unemployed people decreased by 29,822 per year.

During April this year, a total of 11,421 people were newly registered in the unemployment register, which represents 3.1 percent more than were registered back in April last year.

At the same time, 69.7 percent of newly registered individuals (equal to 7,960 people) came to the Institute directly from their previous employment. In April, most people came directly from the manufacturing industry - 1,205 people (15.1 percent).

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

February the 18th, 2022 - Those job seekers who aren't registered with the Croatian Employment Service and don't use the service to look for work could end up without any health insurance, it has emerged.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, all unemployed persons who have failed to register themselves with the Croatian Employment Service (CES) could be left without their right to health insurance. Namely, the Croatian Health Insurance Institute (HZZO), as part of their ongoing process of ''cleaning up'' their register, is preparing legal amendments which, twenty years after their initial abolition, will return the provision according to which an unemployed person acquires health insurance only if he is registered with the Croatian Employment Service.

This means that, according to some rough calculations, in the coming period, another 100,000 people could apply to the Croatian Employment Service. This would also regard all kinds of currently unemployed people who are not looking for a job through the service at all, because otherwise they could easily be left without healthcare coverage.

The number of unemployed Croatian residents registered at the Croatian Employment Service would double in such a case: according to the CES, there were a total of 129,459 people registered as unemployed with them on Wednesday, as was reported by Jutarnji list.

The Croatian Health Insurance Fund (HZZO) has already signed an agreement on the establishment of a proper IT connection with the service so that it can automatically control who is and who is not registered, and it has similar agreements with both the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) and the Tax Administration.

The purpose of the move is to ''clean up'' the register of insured persons of about 300,000 people, as many as are estimated not to be entitled to Croatian health care, yet are likely still accessing it.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.