ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - In nearly one in two cities or municipalities, 248 of 555, less than 10% of the population is employed, Jutarnji List daily said in Monday's issue.

These alarming data reveal, as warned by economists, the extent to which Croatia has transformed into an economy increasingly based on renting, notably along the coast.

The most active population is in the northern counties of Varaždin, Krapina-Zagorje, Međimurje, and Koprivnica-Križevci. Of the ten cities with the highest share of those employed in the total population, five are in northern Croatia, with Varaždin and Čakovec having the highest shares, 60.9% and 60.1% respectively.

The Varaždin area and the Međimurje region are the healthiest parts of Croatia in terms of enterprise, Predrag Bejaković of the Institute of Public Finance told Jutarnji List.

Paradoxically, salaries there are among the lowest in the country, which economists say is due to the textile and footwear industries, which have strong roots in there and in which pay is traditionally low.

Although data on the active population by city or municipality are not complete as they do not encompass those employed in trades and freelancers, who account for 15% of all employed, as well as farmers, they represent a good indicator of trends on the labour market and in society, the newspaper said.

The shares refer to the total population of a city or municipality, not just the active population, reflecting the demographic disaster Croatia is going through. While the north of the country, the City of Zagreb and the tourism-oriented Istria County are doing relatively well, the rest of the country is having a hard time both demographically and economically.

Many talk about two Croatias, one focused on enterprise and one on the rent economy and employment in the public sector, Jutarnji List said.

More news about Croatian economy can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - The leader of the Philippine Association of Service Exporters (PASEI), Elsa U. Villa, has told the Zagreb-based Jutarnji List daily that they have explored the labour market and found out that Croatia is in need of workers, while the Philippines can satisfy that need.

At the start of this year we were informed that Croatia needed some 2,000 workers, and the needs have been rising since then, Villa was quoted as saying in an article published on Friday.

She said that the association could ensure the hiring of workers of various professions and occupations.

In this context, she said that the Filipinos would be ready to work in the tourism and hospitality industry as well as in agriculture and construction.

She explained that the minimum acceptable monthly salary for a lower-educated Filipino may be 450 euro plus the coverage of the accommodation and food costs.

Filipino job-seekers with a higher education expect the monthly salaries from 700 euro and up.

The procedure for issuance of work permits runs smoothly, however, the problem occurs with the issuance of visas since Croatia has no embassy in Manila, she said.

Croatia is ready to import Bangladeshi workers, according to information released after talks on this matter between the Bangladeshi Ambassador to the Netherlands, Sheikh Mohammed Belal, and Assistant Croatian Labour Minister Dražen Opalić.

The Bangladeshi embassy in The Hague has stated that after the talks held in Zagreb, Opalić announced that Croatia would soon forward to Bangladesh a draft memorandum of understanding on this topic, the Zagreb-based Večernji List reported on Friday.

The talks revolved about doctors, nurses, IT specialists, as well as workers in the tourism and construction industries being on demand in Croatia.

The labour and pension system ministry confirmed for the Vecernji List information about the meeting between the assistant minister and the ambassador.

The ministry permanently follows the situation on the labour market to address the challenges considering the demand for labour force, however Minister Marko Pavić underscores that that government's priority is to ensure the hiring of the domestic labour force, the ministry told the daily.

More news about employment in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 19, 2019 - Croatian Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić said on Tuesday that the government would on Wednesday allow the issuance of 2,000 more work permits for foreign workers in the tourist industry plus an additional 1,000 work permits for foreigners in the construction sector.

Pavić said in an interview with the RTL commercial broadcaster that as soon as recently employers urged the government to allow the employment of 5,000 more foreign workers, the government responded that they should exhaust the hiring possibilities in the country.

In this context, Pavić mentioned that out of 1,600 local job seekers registered by the Croatian Employment Service as available for seasonal employment, about 600 of them have been hired in the recent days.

He went on to say that the government had conducted an analysis which showed that three quarters of employers who hired foreign workers, had not at all advertised vacancies on the Croatian market.

Therefore, the authorities are considering an option whereby employers will be required to seek labour force first in Croatia before resorting to foreign labour force.

The purpose of such measure is to make it impossible for the reduction of salaries, according to Pavić.

In late December 2018 the government decided that 65,100 permits could be issued to foreign workers in 2019, including 15,000 permits that have already been extended. The highest number of the work permits referred to construction, tourism and transport.

Under that decision, the quota for 2019 included 20,331 more work permits than in 2018 and nearly 13,000 referred to tourism and construction.

The minister ruled out his resignation which has been demanded by unions that collected signatures for the restoration of statutory pension age from 67 to 65.

More news about employment issues can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 18, 2019 - The Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Tuesday organised a conference called "Can Croatia make it without foreign workers?" which heard that Croatia needs a no-quota model for the import of labour, that 500,000 left the country over the past decade and that the able-bodied population will drop by one million by 2051.

According to projections, the number of able-bodied persons will drop from 2.8 million today to 1.8 million in 30 years or so and today it is clear that demographic changes will restrict GDP growth, said Anđelko Akrap, a professor at the Zagreb School of Economics.

We need decentralisation and a long-term strategy of the country's development focusing on a population policy, he said, adding that countries with insufficient fertility rates for a natural population renewal were not well-organised.

HGK president Luka Burilović said Croatia lost about 500,000 able-bodied persons over the past dozen years because of emigration and population ageing.

"That's why today we have a current chronic labour shortage which should be dealt with at once as it will be the main brake to our development. The new law on foreigners will abolish quotas and allow companies to hire as many workers as they need," he said.

Burilović said Croatia must not allow bureaucratic sluggishness to hinder economic growth as it was already lagging behind the competition.

"This year Croatia's GDP growth will reach the pre-crisis year 2008, while comparable countries went ahead by almost 30%. The most worrying fact is that the number of persons employed, despite solid growth, was still 100,000 lower than in 2008, which is the most important indicator of a country's economic success and the basis for estimating the viability of social security, social progress and prosperity," he said.

The state secretary at the Interior Ministry, Žarko Katić, said the current quota model would be replaced with a no-quota system in order to enable employers to get permits to import workers within five days.

He added that in the first five months of the year, the Interior Ministry issued over 40,000 work permits for citizens of 55 countries.

Ruža Hrga of the Croatian Employment Service said the number of the jobless dropped by 65% since 2013, adding that 140,000 jobs were created over the past five years and that the registered employment rate had gone up 10%.

More news about employment in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 14,2019 - The government is ready to consider an additional increase in the number of work permits for foreigners, however only when all possibilities for hiring local workers are exhausted, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Friday.

When we establish beyond doubt that all possibilities for the employment of our citizens have been exhausted, then we will be ready to consider expanding the quota for foreign workers, Plenković said in Zadar.

In that context he admitted that it was evident that increased quotas were necessary, particularly in Croatia's coastal region in the tourism, hospitality and construction sectors.

Promising that a decision to that effect could be expected, Plenković explained that increases like that must be well-analysed.

He also commented that in some sectors vacancies are advertised and there have been no applications submitted although there are a lot of people at the same time registered as unemployed with the Croatian Employment Agency (HZZ).

The premier added that he would like to see that as many local jobless people as possible find employment and make use of this favourable period on the labour market.

In late December 2019 the Plenković cabinet government decided that 65,100 permits could be issued to foreign workers in 2019, including 15,000 permits that have already been extended.

The highest number of the work permits refer to construction, tourism and transport.

The quota for 2019 includes 20,331 more work permits than in 2018 and nearly 13,000 referred to tourism and construction.

However, earlier on Friday the Croatian Employers' Association and the Croatian Tourism Association asked the government to urgently adopt a decision to raise the quota for foreign workers, saying the tourist season was at risk due to a labour shortage.

In a joint statement, they said the opening of some restaurants and bars before the peak tourist season was at stake. "There are no local employees and the quotas for foreign workers have been filled, which requires an urgent response by the Labour Ministry and the government."

The two associations accused the minister in charge and the government of having turned a deaf ear to weeks-long appeals to help the tourism sector. The associations recalled that last autumn they warned that the import of foreign labour was a short-term solution to the labour shortage and that it was necessary to reduce administrative obstacles.

The Labour Minister on Friday called on employers to contact the HZZ that could connect them with job-seekers and help them find the necessary labour force.

When all the possibilities on the local market are exhausted, requests for a higher number of work permits for foreigners will be considered, the ministry said.

More employment news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, January 27, 2019 - Statistics provided by the Croatian Pension Insurance Fund (HZMO) show that a quarter of Croatian employees have fixed-term contracts, while the lion's share of the newly employed, that is 90% of them, are temporary workers, which is why unionists warn that the government-sponsored measures to boost employment are inefficient.

In November 2018, a total of 387,633 Croatians worked on fixed-time contract basis, making up 25% of all employed persons, and the portion of temporary employees ranged between 22% and 26% over the past three years.

The leader of the SSSH trade union, Mladen Novosel, has told Hina that precarious employment and low wages are the most important reasons for the emigration of Croatians from their homeland.

In the European Union, the average share of fixed-term workers in 2016 stood at 14.22% as against 22.6% in Croatia.

Novosel warns that the government's measures designed to increase employment, which cost 4.5 billion kuna in the past two years, are actually inefficient.

The Labour Ministry has recently stated that an additional two billion kuna has been set aside in 2019 for employment incentives. The ministry also notes that the ratio between fixed-term and permanent employment contracts has been steady for years. It underscores that under the contribution legislation, the authorities offer fiscal relief for employment of people under 30 on a permanent basis.

There are two types of fiscal incentives for employers: the first refers to exemption from paying contributions on the pay base in the first year of employment of newly-employed persons, and the other is about exemption from payment of contributions for the first five years of employment of a young permanent worker.

As a result, the number of young employees with permanent contracts rose to 45,277 in 2018 from 11,953 in 2015, the ministry says.

The SSSH insists that statistics on the number of employees alone do not mirror the real state of affairs on the labour market.

Seasonal employment in tourism is one thing and the fact that as many as 90% of the newly employed have fixed-term contracts is quite another, Novosel says.

Croatia is the champion in the European Union in terms of employment contracts for a three-month period, says the unionist. According to the figures provided by Eurostat, in 2016, 2.3% of employees in the EU had a precarious job, meaning that the work contract did not exceed three months duration, while in Croatia it stood at 8.4%.

"The share of precarious employment has remained relatively stable over the last 10 years, varying between 2.0% (in 2009) and 2.3%. Precarious work contracts are most common in agriculture, forestry and fisheries affecting 8.1% of the employees in the sector," Eurostat reported in 2018.

Among the EU member states, the share of precarious employment was highest in Croatia (8.4%), followed at a distance by France (4.8%), Spain (4.7%), and Poland and Slovenia (both 4.5%). Short work contracts were less common in Romania (0.2%), the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic (both 0.4%), as well as in Germany (0.5%).

The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) says that the share of precarious contracts is due to seasonal needs, for instance in tourism and construction industries. Furthermore, the generally high share of temporary employment contracts is a consequence of unstable business climate, HUP says.

More news on the employment situation in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, January 18, 2019 - Labour and Pension System Minister Marko Pavić said in the eastern city of Osijek on Friday that the intent of the current government was to activate the domestic labour force as much as possible, and reinforced active employment policy measures had been prepared for 2019, with more than 2 billion kuna set aside for that purpose.

Opening a fair to promote employment in tourism, Pavić said that over 160,000 unemployed persons throughout Croatia had been surveyed about their plans, and 20,000 said they would like to work in the tourism industry.

Such events as this one in Osijek are meant to directly connect job-seekers with employers, and similar fairs will also be held in Zagreb and Split, said Pavić.

Tourism Ministry State Secretary Frano Matošić said that between 30,000 and 40,000 workers had been hired for seasonal jobs last year, and the Croatian tourism industry needs an additional 10,000-15,000 seasonal workers, according to some estimates.

More news on the employment situation in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, December 11, 2018 - Employers in Croatia expect to employ more workers in 2019, according to the findings of a survey conducted by the Manpower group, a leading global staffing firm.

The latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey was conducted among 620 employers who were asked what changes they expected in terms of their staffing levels in the next three months in comparison to Q4 2018.

The number of new jobs is expected to rise in seven out of eight industrial sectors analysed by the survey.

In the previous ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, forecasts improved for six industrial sectors.

The most optimistic jobs forecasts were given by employers in the construction sector, who expect a 1 percentage point increase in net employment in their companies. The only sector with the negative jobs projection for Q1 2019 is the tourism and hospitality industry.

Broken down by geographic regions, payrolls are expected to increase in all four regions of the country, the most optimistic projections given by employers in eastern Croatia where the Net Employment Outlook stands at +26%, an eight-percentage point rise in comparison to the last quarter of this year.

The Net Employment Outlook for Q1 2019 is +3% in southern Croatia, rising by 13 percentage points as against the 2019 Q4 Net Employment Outlook for that region.

Confidence levels among employers worldwide are rising, and a majority of employers globally expect a rise on their payrolls from January to the end of March next year.

The most optimistic plans for hiring more workers in 2019 were recorded in Japan, Taiwan, the USA, Slovenia, Greece and Hong Kong, and the least optimistic in Argentina, Switzerland, Italy, Panama and Spain.

More news about Croatian economy and the plans of employers to hire more workers in 2019 and beyond can be found in our Business section.

At this moment, Mate Rimac’s company, Rimac Automobili, employs 429 full-time workers, or 482 employees with associates and students. While most of the workers are based at the company headquarters in Sveta Nedjelja near Zagreb, earlier this year Rimac Automobili opened offices in Split and Osijek. The employees come from 27 countries around the world, according to a statement issued on the Rimac Automobili’s website, reports Index.hr on November 12, 2018.

“Each time any company doubles – everything changes. We are really working hard to structure the company, organize the processes, and help our managers and team leaders to keep things manageable. One of the biggest challenges we have at the moment is space – we are currently in five buildings in Sveta Nedelja and expanding to other locations for both production and R&D,” said Mate Rimac, the founder of Rimac Automobili.

“The fast-paced growth continues due to our growing needs. The Rimac C_Two, launched this year at Geneva Motor Show, is in the final stage of development and requires a lot of resources to tackle the challenge of the homologation and other tests prior to production,” wrote Rimac.

The company is now looking to employ further 100 new employees. All the details can be found here.

In addition to its own projects, the company is working on many more vehicles and technologies. Rimac is a partner to many automotive manufacturers: Porsche, Pininfarina, Aston Martin, CUPRA, Renault, and more others.

“These are exciting times, and we are continuing with the hard work, determined to deliver on our promises,” concluded Rimac Automobili.

Mate Rimac and his company have been in the media focus lately due to their successes. He was named as one of MIT’s Innovators Under 35 and has recently announced that he would start working on a new electric car together with Pininfarina.

For more on Mate Rimac and his company, click here.

ZAGREB, September 20, 2018 - The Croatian Employers Association (HUP) warned on Thursday that the lack of labour on the labour market was dramatic and that the measures the government was proposing would not solve the main problem - high operating costs.