July 30, 2022 - Looking for a job in Croatia? A new weekly feature on TCN, in partnership with leading job site agency, Posao.hr, who present a selection of weekly job listings.

How hard is it to find a job in Croatia, and what is on offer?

We spoke to Ines Bokan, director of leading jobs site Posao.hr, who kindly took the time for this excellent interview overview.  

Ines has kindly agreed to work with us on a new weekly feature on TCN - a weekly selection of 10 job listings, as chosen by Posao.hr.  Details and links to the job opportunities below in the third week of this feature.

Posao.hr selected specially for you

WEEKLY SELECTION OF JOB LISTINGS

ISG Personalmanagement GmbH is looking for a Senior Accountant Adria (m/f) in Zagreb. If you have a bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field and at least 5 years of experience this is a great opportunity for you. Apply byAug 26^th by clicking this link.

Nutricius d.o.o. zapošljava Voditelja prodaje i marketinga (m/ž) u Zagrebu. Poslodavac nudi prepoznavanje i nagrađivanje kvalitetnog rada, inicijative i poduzetničkog duha te fiksna i stimulativna primanja na bazi ostvarenih rezultata. Više informacija dostupno je klikom na link, a natječaj je otvoren do 26.8.2022.

Strabag BRVZ d.o.o. is looking for an Application Packaging Engineer (m/f/d) in Zagreb. At Strabag, you can expect diverse and responsible tasks in a challengign environment, with a pleasant and open working atmosphere. Apply by Aug 14^th via this link.

Globalna hrana d.o.o. / McDonald's zapošljava Supervizora/icu ljudskih potencijama (m/ž) u Zagrebu. Ako odlično poznajete radno zakonodavstvo, osnovne principe HR procesa i procesa zapošljavanja, oso je sjajan posao za vas! Više informacija dostupno je klikom na link ovdje, a prijaviti se možete do 10.8.2022.

VIP Digital d.o.o., poznatiji kao Sjeverni.info zapošljava Voditelja marketinga i prodaje oglasnog prostora (m/ž) na neodređeno radno vrijeme u Varaždinu. Svi su detalji dostupni na linku, a na oglas se možete prijaviti do 2.9.2022.

Zamax plin d.o.o. u potrazi je za Računovođom (m/ž) u Zagrebu. Poslodavac nudi rad na neodređeno s probnim rokom, mogućnost profesionalnog razvoja i rad u ugodnoj radnoj atmosferi. Natječaj je otvoren do 14.8.2022., a prijaviti se možete klikom na link.

Mamut Fortis d.o.o., poznatiji kao Arena bet & casino, zapošljava Senior Bookmakera (m/ž) u Zagrebu. Poslodavac nudi rad u dinamičnoj i poticajnoj radnoj sredini, kao i priliku za edukacijama. Više informacija dostupno je na linku, a prijave se zaprimaju do 16.8.2022.

Vienna Insurance Group AG is hiring an IFRS 17 Actuary (all genders) – focus on life insurance in Vienna, Austria. All the information about the position is available by clicking this link, and you can submit your application by Aug 20^th.

Pfizer Inc. is looking for a Vaccines Key Account manager Croatia (m/f) in Zagreb. If you have at least one year of pharmaceutical experience, a valid driver's licence and a university degree in a relevant field, this is a great opportunity for you! Apply by Aug 26^th via this link.

KTC d.d. zapošljava Voditelja poljoljekarne (m/ž) u Murskom Središću. Rok za prijavu je do 10.8.2022. a svi detalji dostupni su klikom na link ovdje.

For more career options and job listings visit posao.hr.

These weekly job listings will appear in the weekly TCN newsletter - you can subscribe here.

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What is it like to live in Croatia? An expat for 20 years, you can follow my series, 20 Ways Croatia Changed Me in 20 Years, starting at the beginning - Business and Dalmatia.

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ZAGREB, 15 Oct 2021 - In the second quarter of this year, 1.69 million people in Croatia were gainfully employed, while 146,000 were unemployed, and the survey unemployment rate was 8%, according to a labor force survey carried out by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

The survey found that of the 146,000 unemployed people, 89,000 or 61.3% were registered with the employment bureau and the remaining 38,7% were not.

At the same time, of 138,000 job seekers registered with the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ), 48,000, or 35.1% did not meet the international employment criteria.

The survey showed that in the second quarter of this year 3.5 million Croatians were of working age (aged 15 and over), of whom 1.69 million were in work, 146,000 were out of work and 1.7 million were inactive.

Among the inactive population, 66,000 said they wanted to work but were not looking for a job, while 1.2 million did not want to work because of old age, poor health, education, and so on. There were an estimated 8,000 people who were looking for a job but could not accept it in the next two weeks, and about 28,000 who were not looking for work and could not accept it in the next two weeks. The "Others" category included 399,000 inactive persons aged 75 and over who, under the methodology, are not asked about details of their inactivity.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

January 29, 2021 - Ever wonder about the highest-paid jobs in Croatia? A look at Croatian salaries, from the best to lowest-paid workers. 

Slobodna Dalmacija reports that the highest-paid workers in Croatia are flight controllers whose average monthly salaries last year of HRK 26,260 are almost four times higher than the average. In contrast, the lowest-paid workers, seamsters and seamstresses, with an average of HRK 3,780, need seven months to work for one flight controller's salary.

According to the Moj Posao portal, referring to data from the MojaPlaća service, in the pandemic 2020, the average monthly net salary with salary supplements in Croatia was HRK 6,712, four percent or HRK 285 more than the average salary from the year before.

The median salary for last year amounted to HRK 6,125. It increased less than the average, by two percent or HRK 125 compared to the year before, which means that a larger number of respondents receiving a salary is lower than the average salary than those with above-average salaries.

The best-paid workers last year, along with flight controllers, were pilots with average salaries of HRK 14,950, various managers with average salaries ranging around HRK 14,900, followed by IT employees such as IT architects with an average of HRK 14,300, engineers and programmers with HRK 13,400 and HRK 13,320, respectively. Textile workers earn the least, especially seamsters and seamstresses, with an average salary of HRK 3,780, tailors with HRK 3,870, and shoemakers with an average of HRK 3,910.

With data on last year's salaries, you can find the current list of the lowest and best-paid jobs according to MojaPlaća.hr, which monitors the amounts of salaries for 296 jobs, and their research currently covers 36,000 respondents.

While there are not too many surprises on the list of the highest salaries, on the list of currently lowest-paid occupations, you will find post workers (HRK 4,523), undertakers (HRK 4,315), as well as florists, beauticians, and hairdressers.

MojPosao reveals that in the pandemic last year, despite the economic crisis, the average monthly net salary in none of the industries decreased compared to 2019. They add that companies best pay employees from the IT and telecommunications sector, where salaries are 30 percent higher than the average. This activity recorded the highest average growth of monthly income (6%) compared to the previous year.

In the past 10 months, 19 percent of employees received financial bonuses. The cash compensation for working in an emergency was mostly distributed to their employees by companies from the activities that had the most challenging period. Thus, bonuses were mostly distributed by companies from trade (25%), transport (23%), and health (23%). Even though the total number of employees to whom employers provide certain benefits has not changed significantly since 2019, the type of benefits to which employees are entitled has changed.

Jobs with the highest average salaries, MojaPlaća 
1. Flight controller HRK 24,367
2. Leasing manager HRK 18,529
3. Lead developer HRK 16,753
4. General Manager HRK 16,664
5. Pilot HRK 16,516
6. IT manager HRK 16,395
7. IT director HRK 16,112
8. Head of Finance and Accounting HRK 15,863
9. Regional director HRK 15,340
10. Branch manager HRK 14,849
11. Sales director HRK 14,771
12. Sales and Marketing director HRK 14,688
13. Director of Finance and Accounting HRK 14,673
14. Logistics director HRK 14,667
15. Executive director HRK 14,221
16. Branch director HRK 13,985
17. Product owner HRK 13,848
18. DevOps engineer HRK 13,820
19. Production director HRK 13,794
20. IT architect HRK 13,735

Jobs with the lowest average salaries, MojaPlaća 
1. Seamsters and Seamstresses, HRK 3650 
2. Nanny HRK 3883 
3. Cleaner HRK 3885
4. Textile technician HRK 3889 
5. Tailor HRK 3943
6. Unskilled worker HRK 3993 
7. Hairdresser HRK 4051
8. Pedicurist HRK 4056 k
9. Shoemaker HRK 4111 
10. Lifeguard, swimming instructor HRK 4235 
11. Reception desk worker HRK 4254 
12. Funeral service worker HRK 4315
13. Security guard HRK 4321
14. Maid (tourism) HRK 4329
15. Interviewer HRK 4363 
16. Florist/arranger HRK 4431 
17. Worker in furniture production HRK 4490 
18. Post worker HRK 4523 
19. Beautician HRK 4566 
20. Caretaker at school HRK 4566 

To read more about lifestyle in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page. 

More than excellent news for the Croatian job market and the domestic economy as a whole as as many as 600 jobs are set to be opened in Zagreb County thanks to a huge investment.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of May, 2019, parts for the aviation giants Boeing and Airbus will be produced in the Republic of Croatia. The parts will be incorporated into the world's most famous aircraft and their engines, including names like Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, and Rolls-Royce. The news was announced on Wednesday by Večernji list, citing that the Austrian aeronautical company FACC is beginning to construct a production plant for the interior parts of planes in the business zone of Jakovlje in Zagreb County, close to the Croatian capital of Zagreb.

The investment is worth a massive 33 million euros and will open up 600 jobs. The land has already been purchased, the necessary permissions and the permit have been granted and the construction has begun. The plant should be completed by the end of 2020 and production at the plant will commence in 2021.

This great news has also been confirmed by the head of the aforementioned Austrian company Robert Machtlinger, who stated that FACC wants to grow and be quicker than the market and intends to work on strengthening the expertise of its employees. "Zagreb is offering us this because it has a highly qualified workforce," he added.

The company chose between different locations in Central and Eastern Europe and ultimately decided on Zagreb. The sale contract has already been signed, and the Austrian company has become the owner of the land in the Jakovlje business area, totalling 130 thousand square metres.

Vecernji list also revealed that a meeting will take place on Wednesday in Banski Dvori where the President of FACC AGI's management board and the president of AVIC Cabin Systems Co. Limited from China, a company which owns 55.5 percent of the Austrian company, will talk to Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Economy Minister Darko Horvat and State Secretary Zdenk Lucić about the project implementation and everything that goes into the planning and licensing phase.

The plan is that construction work on the plant will be completed by December 2020, and production will begin no later than April 2021, according to Dnevnik.

As a daughter company of the Chinese state-owned company Aviation Industry Corporation of China, one of the ten largest Chinese companies, FACC, based in Austria, is part of the global market and cooperates with world leaders in the aviation industry such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Rolls-Royce. FACC is otherwise a company with more than 3,400 employees from 38 countries which work in thirteen locations worldwide, Vecernji list writes.

They added that un the financial year 2018/2019, they earned 781.6 million euros in revenue, an increase of 4.5 percent compared to the previous financial year, and also the best result in the company's thirty-year history.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

The tourist season is just around the corner, and with the employment paradox of there being too many jobs but not enough workers, yet there being too many works and not enough jobs continuing in Croatia, some traditional seasonal employers are staying one step ahead when it comes to their level of care for their seasonal staff, at least in Novigrad.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of May, 2019, the Aminess tourist company has started building a hotel solely for its employees in Novigrad, Istria. The new hotel for the company's staff, along with all of the necessary prerequisites for participating on the commercial market, will be ready for the 2020 summer season.

The location of the new employee hotel in Novigrad extends up to 2,500 square metres is just ten minutes from the farthest Aminess tourist facility, the closest location at which said staff are likely to be working during the tourist season.

They will have a reception desk, a common kitchen with a dining area, a parking area and a closed bicycle storage room. The new Novigrad hotel's rooms will mostly be double with private bathrooms and with French balconies or terraces, modern furnishings and TV, as well as a heating and cooling system. In addition to the hotel's free Wi-Fi access, employees will also be able to enjoy a shared lounge area, and specially equipped rooms for the washing, drying and ironing of clothes.

"Happy and satisfied employees are key to the company's success. Therefore, with the benefits we offer, we have decided to build a hotel for our employees in order to make them feel comfortable. This will enable all employees coming from other regions to have even better quality accommodation with numerous benefits on offer to them,'' stated Sanja Žužić, Aminess' Human Resource Manager.

Make sure to stay up to date by following our dedicated lifestyle and business pages for much more.

Croatia's employment issues are somewhat perplexing to many, and although there has apparently been a massive drop in unemployment, there's only been a very slight jump in those registering as newly employed. The maths doesn't always really add up, but unfortunately the demographic picture of the country explains it all.

As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 10th of April, 2019, at this time of year, official data on employment levels tends to heavily reflect the huge levels of seasonality Croatia's labour market is affected by with every passing year, of course, this is primarily owing to the increased employment levels of seasonal workers before the start of the main tourist season in summer. The latest figures from HZMO (Croatian Pension Insurance Fund) from March show some growth in the number of insured persons, both on a monthly and an annual basis, with positive annual rates having continued to some degree or another since March 2015, while monthly growth began in only in February, according to analysts from Raiffeisen Bank (RBA).

Last month, the number of insured persons increased by 14,000, to a total of 1.52 million people, and it is realistic to expect that the number of insured persons will increase even more owing to the opening up of seasonal positions in preparation for the tourist season, an economic trend which could easily continue until September. When compared to March last year, the number of insured persons more than 32,000 or 2.2 percent higher.

Along with the pretty positive indicators from HZMO's labour market information, the Croatian Bureau of Statistic's labour force surveys are more in line with the process of the huge problem of the mass emigration of Croatia's fit, healthy, working-age population and the demographic of an aging general population. The latest survey, in which the last quarter of 2018 was included, indicates an annual drop in Croatia's working-age population from 3.54 to 3.52 million.

Those who are economically active in Croatia, whether they're already working or actively looking for a job, numbered just 1.8 million at the end of 2018, which is 42,000 people or 2.3 percent less than the year before. Despite the positive economic data, the activity rate dropped from 52 to 51 percent. Activity and employment rates have, at least for some time now, been indicative of much more than just the general rate of unemployment. This applies in particular to activities that are needed in more economically developed EU countries, and jobs that tend to be given to (highly) skilled staff.

Economists have been warning for a long time that recent developments in reduce the potential for growth in Croatia in the long term. The number of unemployed people in Croatia in the last quarter of the year, according to the results of the survey conducted in the last quarter of 2018, dropped when compared to the previous year by 46,000 people, or 23 percent, to 154,000 people. At the same time, however, the number of employees increased only very slightly, by 0.3 percent, meaning just 5,000 people more, to 1.64 million. In the fourth quarter, the activity rate and the employment rate recorded lower values ​​(51 percent and 46.6 percent), according to RBA.

In the last quarter of 2018, the numbers of economically inactive people older than fifteen increased by just one percent. Finally, the year ended with the fall of Croatia's unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, which is also the first drop below 10 percent since 2009, the year which followed the 2008 recession, but unfortunately this is partly a consequence of Croatia's negative demographic trend.

Although Croatia's growth in employment is of course very encouraging, analysts warn that it should be noted that the number of employees has been growing at a mild rate for the last five years, and that the average number of employees is still 6.5 percent lower than in before the crisis back in 2008. Overall, they conclude, Croatia's labour market remains very fragile and is burdened with some extremely serious structural problems, especially in terms of the total mismatch of supply and demand, long-term unemployment, and the falling number of working-age people for the ninth year in a row.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics and business pages for much more.

Click here for the original article by Jadranka Dozan for Poslovni Dnevnik

You're not entirely sure where Sestrunj is?

Well, let's be honest, that's perfectly OK, most Croatians are not sure either!

But, we're sure a lot of them Googled the island today, as a great advertisement surfaced on Facebook, telling the world about what seems to be a too-good-to-be-true opportunity on the island in the Zadar archipelago: 

What the ad says, freely translated to English, is this:

They're looking for a person to work in their grocery store. They're providing accommodation year-round, and a pay-check (they're not mentioning what the amount is). In addition to those, you get to experience the untouched nature of the island, the sun and the sea during the summer, and the fact that there are around 10 people living on the island during the winter!

The add does not really specify how important it is for the person applying to actually be fully fluent in Croatian, so we're guessing - if you know a couple of dozen words used in the grocery-store setting, you can probably apply and try and convince the local folks in charge that you're the right person for the job. Apply at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or directly to the island of Sestrunj Facebook page inbox.

In case you're wondering, there's a ferry and a catamaran (link to schedule.pdf) from Sestrunj to Zadar, the catamaran operates each day of the week and it takes less than an hour to get from the island to Zadar (which is almost as much as you need to get from one side of Zagreb to the other during proper morning rush hour). The ferry operates between Zadar and Sestrunj (and other islands in the Zadar archipelago) every day only during the summer season; for the rest of the year, it's 3 or 4 times a week (link to schedule.pdf).

So, maybe it sounds like something you would like to do. To me, honestly, it sounds a bit like Northern Exposure. But warmer. Much warmer.