As Morski writes on the 25th of March, 2019, the specialised portal Gastroposao, which was launched last year, and the City of Pula are continuing their cooperation this year, too.

The portal's aim is to tackle the problem of the lack of quality seasonal workers in hospitality and tourism, which is one of the biggest problems Croatian tourism has faced in recent years.

Following the good results of last year's pilot cooperation between the Gastroposao portal and the City of Pula, when during May and June, Pula's small and medium entrepreneurs in the fields of hospitality and tourism were greatly helped in terms of finding a quality workforce, this year the project is also including Istria, Rovinj and Medulin, as well as the town of Novalja on the island of Pag.

The City of Pula is the first city to recognise the need to create much more simple and exact measures of employment assistance in the field of hospitality and tourism, and has decided that all restaurants from the City of Pula can use incentives in the amount of 90 percent to finance their search for a quality workforce by announcing their search on Gastroposao.

''We're witnessing just how challenging it is to find a quality workforce today, especially in tourism. The tourist season is knocking at the front door and our intention is to quickly and easily "connect" the supply and demand on the labour market and this is why this project is important. If we continue to want to develop and make steps with our [tourist] offer, then it's crucial to have a high-quality workforce,'' said Pula's mayor, Boris Miletić.

Pula will provide direct assistance to all those in the tourism and hospitality sector before the tourist season kicks off, allowing them to easily and quickly find high quality seasonal workers from all over Croatia and beyond, without having to pay extra cash, and with minimal amounts of paperwork.

This means that those looking for staff only pay 100 kuna in costs when publishing an ad on Gastroposao, while the rest will be subsidised by their local government. This approach helps those in the hospitality and tourism industry because a great many small and medium-sized businesses are struggling to be able to get hold of the necessary resources needed for such moves otherwise. The only condition they must fulfil is that they are beneficiaries of measures in the areas of the cities of Pula, Rovinj and Novalja, or in the municipality of Medulin.

It's important to mention that Gastroposao cuts out the middle man and allows employer and employee to communicate directly to each other without any third parties. Employees don't need to write out any job applications and resumes, and they only need to fill in a prepared questionnaire on the Gastroposao portal which has been tailored to the professional terms and written language rules that chefs, waiters and other employees in such fields understand.

Otherwise, the Gastroposao project is co-funded under the IPA Local Employment Promotion Initiative - phase II of the European Social Fund, in the amount of 178,938.00 euro. Gastroposao is the only specialist portal in the Republic of Croatia for employment assistance in the tourism and hospitality sector.

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The Republic of Croatia is in a group of four European Union member states with a lower uncovered demand for workers when compared to one year earlier. The Croatian paradox of staff fighting over workers who either don't exist or don't want to work, while would-be staff complain about there being no jobs continues.

As Ana Blaskovic/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 19th of March, 2019, the workforce problem is rapidly becoming one of the most burning issues not only here in Croatia but across the European Union. In the last quarter of last year, Croatia ranked among the four EU member states with a lower uncovered demand for workers than was recorded during the same period last year, Eurostat figures show.

At the Union level, as well as at its very core in which the euro currency wains, the rate of vacancies grew to 2.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2018. Just for comparison, this rate, which shows uncovered demand for labour, was 2.1 percent in the previous quarter, and 2.2 percent in the Eurozone.

The availability of labour in the last year has become the top theme for domestic employers. While a few years ago this issue was only mentioned from time to time, in the last surveys answered by business owners, it emerged at the very top of the list. In Poslovni Dnevnik's recent interview with AmCham, Andrea Doko Jelušić pointed out that when the last survey was taken, their members underlined this topic as the main constraining factor in 2018, while back in 2017, it was placed on the list for the first time ever.

Reflecting on the workforce as an inevitable issue of the competitiveness of the domestic economy, CNB/HNB Governor Boris Vujčić said on Monday that Croatia is specific in the EU because as many as 40 percent of working-age citizens don't work. "When looking at the employment rate, Croatia is the second worst in the European Union after Greece, which means that everyone else has to work harder to maintain the same level of living standards," said the governor.

The key to the mobilisation of this population, Vujčić believes, is to evaluate the positive changes in pension regulations which extend the working life. The EU and the Eurozone are currently experiencing the most problems with finding workers in the service sector, with the job vacancy rate standing at 2.6 percent. Industry and construction account for 2.1 percent in the EU, and 2 percent in the Eurozone. In Croatia, the vacancy rate in the fourth quarter fell to 1.4 percent, which was the lowest level in just over a year. The highest jump in labour demand for the same period last year was in the fourth quarter in the Czech Republic, Austria, Malta, and Germany.

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Click here for the original article by Ana Blaskovic for Poslovni Dnevnik

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 7th of March, 2019, well known Split entrepreneur Jozo Parčina, perhaps best known to the wider public as the owner of the beautiful Luxe Hotel in Split, could soon become the owner of the "Kaštela Riviera".

Not even three full years after the launching of bankruptcy proceedings over the defunct Kaštela company, they acquired the conditions for the sale of their property, which is largely under a mortgage, among which the most prized is the hotel "Palace".

The interest in buying was confirmed to Slobodna Dalmacija by Parčina himself, who in the meantime redeemed the receivables of the Austrian HETA agency, a successor to Hypo Bank.

''I have redeemed the HETA receivables because I want to buy a complex in Kaštela, invest 40 million euros in its renovation and upgrading, put the hotel in order and employ 150 people,'' said Parčina when discussing the plans, adding that it would be a four or five-star hotel, and would boast up to 350 rooms.

The renovation refers to the only remaining building, the old "Palace" building with 230 rooms, protected as a cultural monument, and another new building. Since the surface areas of the complex in Kaštel Stari, located on the shore, is about 38,000 square metres in size, a building larger than the existing one will be permitted.

''I'm already in the hotel business. With "Luxe", which has been in operation for ten years, another hotel in Split is being prepared, where works are going to be finished soon, so I'd like to expand this activity by buying a complex in Kaštela,'' added Parčina, who in the meantime has invested in some real estate which he now rents out.

In earlier years, Jozo Parčina was known to the general public as the owner of a company which dealt with various gambling machines located across Dalmatia and Istria, this business was eventually shut down by tax collectors and by the Croatian Government in 2016.

If he succeeds in purchasing the "Kaštela Riviera" property, Parčina estimated that from the moment of everything being ready for work, it would take up to three years for the investment to be realised. Assets will be sold in bankruptcy proceedings through the Financial Agency (FINA) so it's clear that the real estate will go to whoever is willing to pay the most.

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As Adriano Milovan/Novac.hr writes on the 4th of March, 2019, the situation on the Croatian labour market is all the more alarming: despite the significant number of registered unemployed people, there are numerous activities for which a labour force must be imported. With regard to the further trends on the labour market, as well as the challenges that Croatia is facing in terms of a digital revolution, Novac sat down and talked to the leading man of the consulting house of the EC in Croatia, Berislav Horvat. Berislav Horvat has good knowledge of the trends on the labour market, as well as on entrepreneurial scenes across Croatia.

We're approaching the 6th anniversary of EU membership and the 28th anniversary of independence. While we have achieved our main political goals as a country, it's a general belief that we've left it a bit late when coming up with an economic plan. How do you assess the current development of entrepreneurship in Croatia, especially compared to the countries we're usually compared to?

Unfortunately, we have not yet completed the transition process. On the other hand, our entrepreneurs don't yet enjoy the status in our society that they enjoy in other transition countries. In our country, entrepreneurs are still looked at with skepticism, they're still the black sheep in a way, and realistically, they don't deserve such a status. The EC has therefore launched the ''EC entrepreneur of the year'' program, through which we want to show that there are also successful entrepreneurial stories in Croatia.

I personally think that the situation in Croatia and the attitude towards entrepreneurs in the last five years has changed significantly. In that sense, it's enough to say that five years ago in Croatia, practically nobody spoke about startups, funding, and so on. Moreover, these terms weren't even being used. Nowadays, the situation is different: we're talking about that, we look at who started a startup, who invested what, what entrepreneurial incubator was used and the like... So, the focus of the public is slowly changing and turning towards entrepreneurship, but it's not as fast as we'd like it to be.

Exactly. We do have all this Croatia today, but there's still very little of it. Even the many start-up companies belong to ''emergency entrepreneurship'', ie, they're not a real statement of the desire to start a business in order to engage in entrepreneurship, but are driven for the sake of employment...

I think there's far more entrepreneurship in Croatia than we can see. Media attention loves to highlight the negatives and it's difficult for some of the entrepreneurs to become a star in such a situation.

In Estonia, for example, it's different. Their stars were also once football players, athletes, and starlets, but they systematically worked to change that. Today, after twenty or more years, Estonia's main stars are entrepreneurs, which, of course, doesn't mean that their media doesn't highlight lifestyle [sections] and that jet set type people aren't stars. There's enough space for everyone.

But we have not yet reached that level. In our public domain, the best still don't dominate [the scene], those who have created something from nothing and succeeded in life with their own work and effort. We've gone too deeply into the negativity and now we can't get out of it, even in the conditions that in recent years the situation with the economy is much better, as is evidenced by the growth in income and profit of companies. That's why we have the impression that everything is bad, and that's just not the case. You can be successful in Croatia.

When you talk to clients, especially those from overseas who want to invest and start a business here, what do they complain about most?

The main problem over the last few years is the lack of workforce. Mass emigration from Croatia resulted in a shortage of workers. Before that, you could feel a lack of workforce in tourism, hospitality and construction, and now that's the case in almost all sectors. This will surely be a major obstacle to the further development of Croatia. An example is the construction industry, which even for a secure job constructing something, you can no longer find people to do it.

Once, our main problem was unemployment, and now it's a shortage of workers. According to some estimates, even among those who are officially registered as unemployed, there are only actually 10,000 to 15,000 who really are unemployed, while others have remained registered as such for other reasons.

On the other hand, this year we've got a quota of 65,000 foreign workers we can import. This is the record for now, and it's quite certain that this quota, and thus the number of foreign workers in Croatia will grow in the next few years.

Apart from tourism and construction, which sectors lack a workforce the most?

Definitely the IT sector. Practically every IT company I know would hire 100 developers tomorrow because there's a lot of work. Most of them work on foreign markets, where the demand is higher than the supply.

Do you expect bigger waves of emigration from Croatia? Let us not forget that next year the doors of to the Austrian labour market, the last in the EU [to keep restrictions on Croatian workers] will open...

Emigration will still continue. True, Austria could attract a part of our workforce because it's close and workers will be able to come and go virtually from weekend to weekend. So, emigration will continue, but there will be returns, especially as salaries in Croatia are rising. Estimates for the future are difficult to give, but it's clear that the shortage of workforce will remain the number one issue for Croatia in the next few years.

How do we solve the problem of the lack of workforce?

We will have to turn to the import of labour, in the long term. But let's not forget that because of this shortage of labour in Croatia, there's a rise in wages, which means that some of the Croats who have left will come back in time. They will simply begin to calculate whether it's worth living abroad or here. Let's be realistic, many of our emigrants, especially those who are paid less, don't live in the best conditions in the countries they've moved to, so we already have cases where people are returning. The salary increase in Croatia will bring back some of those who left the country.

There is also the problem of education, the programs of which should be adapted to the needs of the labour market, just as enrollment quotas should be.

What could the state do to reduce emigration and boost returns?

The state could intervene in tax policy measures. Further reductions in personal income tax and the abolition of the highest tax rate would greatly help people increase their net salaries. This would lead to less people leaving and some former emigrants returning.

But, how usefeul are such efforts when taking into account the state of public finances, especially the pension and health system?

These measures can be implemented, but the only way to do that is to reduce the spending of the state, on both a central and a local level. This implies reforms. There is also a need to increase the base of people who pay taxes, or more people bring to the labour market.

Now the situation is almost ideal for some action to be taken: in the real sector there is a lack of people, and in the public there is a surplus of employees. The economy is growing, and the government is stable, so there should not be many problems and the solution is obvious. So, we just have to implement the reforms we're talking about. This is a historical moment that this government has and it must use it.

The world is undergoing a new digital revolution, but we're lagging behind. Moreover, we're still dealing with ''classic'' industries. What are the perspectives open to us?

Digitisation opens up a large area, and a large number of companies that are opening in Croatia are IT companies, so we can't say that we're not following trends in the digital world. Existing, already established Croatian companies invest heavily in digitisation. For many Croatian companies, the EC helps in the introduction of software robotisation. While, for example, Gideon Brothers produced real autonomous robots, which instead of forklifts drive pallets by warehouse, and our domestic companies, such as Atlantica, Orbica and Tokić, are already piloting projects with this new technology. Or, let's say, Mate Rimac, our EC entrepreneur of the year, who, besides producing cars, works hard on the development of the use of digital technologies, and all this is happening in Croatia.

You are in contact with investors. What is the current interest in Croatia from investors?

We are a world leader in auditing and consulting services. We have 270,000 employees worldwide, and in Croatia there are more than 220. Among our clients, we have a lot of investors who want to invest here, especially private equity funds. Still, the problem is that they are looking for big investments, those of 20 or 30 million euros, and there aren't many like that in Croatia. In the case of Croatia, it would probably have helped us to have venture capital funds, which would aid startups. Otherwise, HBOR and EIF have recently launched a venture capital program, which is good for entrepreneurship development in Croatia, but, it's also necessary to have a network of business angels, venture capital funds and private equity funds, so that the system can accommodate and enable funding at all stages of entrepreneurship development.

How does the digital revolution reflect on the EC?

The EC is doing a lot of work on digitalisation. We have digitised our internal talent management system and now we have ''click'' solutions. Numerous processes have been robotised. One digital marketing company joined us last year, so now we have a rounded service - from tips to accessing a buyer, to the performance of the app or website. Customers want less advice, they're now seeking complete solutions, and we can offer them that now. This also allows us to work on innovations. We're also investing hundreds of millions of dollars in audit tools and technology so we can carry out EC digital audits worldwide. I can say that a lot has changed since I started doing this job sixteen years ago!

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Click here for the original article/interview by Adriano Milovan for Novac.hr/Jutarnji

Most of Croatia's biggest entrepreneurs are located on the northern Adriatic islands, and Croatia's biggest employers are still in the tourism and trade industries.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 6th of February, 2019, according to the analysis of the Financial Agency (FINA), which included details on entrepreneurs operating in the Republic of Croatia, there are 4,322 of them across 51 cities and municipalities in total who work as classified entrepreneurs, and in 2017, the largest number of entrepreneurs were in the field of providing accommodation and food preparation and serving - 903 of them. This tourism sector has now achieved its highest total revenue (almost 2.7 billion kuna), which is 25.6 percent of total income of island entrepreneurs.

Following those in tourism are entrepreneurs in the field of wholesale and retail trade - 656 of them. 2.2 billion kuna or 21.3 percent of total revenues and entrepreneurs are in this field. Construction is ranked third with 472 entrepreneurs and 1.4 billion kuna in revenues, which is 13.7 percent of total income of entrepreneurs from island areas.

In the case of tourism entrepreneurs, these were the highest in terms of the number of employees, with 6,585 employees or 30.6 percent of the total number of employees in all activities. This group of entrepreneurs also earned the highest revenues, and among them, according to the criterion of total revenues, the best are the hotel and tourism companies from Mali Lošinj, Hvar and Rab, or Jadranka hotels, Sunčani Hvar, and Imperial.

When looking at the ''size'' of these entrepreneurs, the largest number of micro entrepreneurs with 92 percent of the share in the total number of entrepreneurs are registered in the observed island areas. In addition, the same group have the largest share in profits, 42.7 percent, and employ the largest number of workers, making up a significant 33.8 percent of the total number of employed people in island towns and municipalities.

There are nine big companies based on islands in the Republic of Croatia, one in the area of ​​trade, Trgovina Krk from Malinska on Krk, one in the field of construction, GP Krk from Krk, one in the processing industry, Sardina from Brač and one in the area of ​​passenger transport, Autotrans from the island of Cres, while the remaining six are in the area of the ​​provision of accommodation and food preparation and service.

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Click here for the original article by Darko Bicak for Poslovni Dnevnik

The Days of jobs in tourism events across three Croatian cities, both in continental Croatia and on the coast, are set to offer new employment opportunities for many seeking to enter into the world of tourism, which is by far Croatia's greatest economic asset.

While jobs in Croatia might appear to be few and far between for many of those seeking opportunities elsewhere across the territory of the European Union, tourism remains by far the strongest sector in Croatia, with numerous positions available up and down the coast, and doors opening even in the previously overlooked continental part of Croatia as more and more tourists 

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 25th of January, 2019, the Days of jobs in tourism event will bring together many Croatian employers from across the tourism sector to get both currently unemployed people and those seeking a career change interested in working in Croatia's booming tourism sector this upcoming summer season.

The ''Days of jobs in tourism" event will be held for the third consecutive year this year under the official organisation of the Ministry of Labour and Pensions, the Ministry of Tourism, the Croatian Employment Service and the Croatian National Tourist Board.

The aim of this event is to enable employers and the currently unemployed to connect with each other, gain important information on employment opportunities and engage in tourism career development in one place.

According to the estimates of the event's organisers, this year, "Days of jobs in tourism" will bring together more than 120 employers and more than 17,000 visitors seeking seasonal employment from three cities - January the 18th in Osijek, January the 25th in Zagreb and February the 1st down on the coast itself in Split.

Minister of Labour Marko Pavić and Tourism Minister Gari Cappelli paid a visit to the Zagreb event which start at 10:00 today at the Zagreb Fair (Velesajam).

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The demographic has had numerous repercussions on Croatian society as a whole, and a lack of adequate or qualified labour force for Croatian employers is perhaps the most hard hit sector of them all. But just how is the tourism sector doing?

The paradoxical society which somehow manages to exist despite all and any circumstance in Croatia is that there is no work for a lot of people, while on the other hand there is a lot of work on offer but nobody to actually do it.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of January, 2019, from November 2018 to February 2019, HZZ is conducting a survey among Croatia's unemployed population on their intentions and their readiness to work along the coast in various tourist destinations.

Croatian employers, more specifically hoteliers from numerous tourist resorts up and down the Croatian coast are searching out potential seasonal staff from continental Croatia earlier and earlier with each passing year, with their sights set on the overlooked eastern Croatia in particular. Thus, HZZ's Vinkovci-based regional office has already organised as many as eight employer visits for the purpose of seeking seasonal workers for 2019's upcoming tourist season this summer.

In order to better respond to the demands of Croatian employers and to better coordinate the job supply with the demand, HZZ's aforementioned survey focused primarily on how Croatia's unemployed population feel about working on the coast should the opportunity be offered to them.

The day of jobs in tourism for the Slavonian counties is set to be held on January the 18th in Osijek, and HZZ's Vinkovci branch office is organising transport on the day for all those interested, Glas Slavonije writes.

As of now, it is unofficially known that Croatian employers are willing to offer higher salaries, raising them by 10 to 20 percent for chefs, waiters and confectioners, with almost all potential job offers including not only free accommodation, but free food for the duration of the work too.

In the past year, from January to September, the most sought after were employees chefs, assistant chefs, waiters, cleaners, receptionists, people to work in shops, and other occupations in the area of ​​accommodation and food preparation and service, as well as the wholesale and retail trade.

In that period, there was a pressing need for 23,652 seasonal workers in Croatia, and a little less, 22,144, were actually employed during that time, which indicates that Croatia's lack of seasonal workers is not significant or particularly worrying, yet.

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An economic boost could well be on the cards for Croatian tourism as one of the country's most successful companies within that sector raises employee wages and aims for further expansion for 2019's tourist season.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 5th of November, 2018, after a successful seaso, one of the most successful tourist companies in Croatia, the Jadranka Group from Lošinj, is investing in the salaries of its employees and is looking for reinforcements for next season.

Jadranka Group's education program includes in-house workshops, theoretical lectures and practical training. Among them, the Gastro Academy stands out, and employees are encouraged to focus on improving the skills needed for high-level service at a five-star level.

With internal education, employees have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills and thus attend specialised programs held in external institutions for highly specialised professions such as those in concierge and bartending, to name a couple. Therefore, it comes as no real surprise that in Jadranka hotels, the daughter company of the Jadranka Group, the number of employees has doubled since 2009.

"We believe that salary increases are a logical step in developing the group's business and employee relationships, which are key factors for successful business operations. In the hotel and camping industry, we're constantly increasing from year to year so that along with the improvement of living and working conditions, we give a kind of acknowledgment and gratitude to our employees for our collective success. In addition, this year, we've increased the basic salaries in our commercial sector, for retail, wholesale and food production,'' said Sanjin Šolić, the CEO of the Jadranka Group, who celebrated 30 years of work in Jadranka last year.

When speaking about an economic boost, raising salaries and improving employee conditions come above all else.

Mr. Solić emphasised that one of the group's priorities is to ensure the proper conditions for seasonal employees as soon as possible. With this aim, the raising of the level of the tourist facilities to a four-star level began, in a move which will provide the employees with adequate accommodation and ensure much more enjoyable living conditions during their stay and time spent working there in Lošinj.

Jadranka Group's good attitude towards their seasonal workers speaks volumes in support of the fact that the group is by far one of the most desirable employers on the Croatian coast and islands.

In a further economic boost for the workers and the company, at the end of the season, they offer those workers a type of permanent status, which is a guaranteed job for the next year, as well as all of the rights enjoyed by permanent employees. Jadranka Group employs some 700 permanent employees, while during the tourist season the total number of employees stands at about 1,600, a large number of those employees are deployed in the group's daughters-businesses.

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Negative trends need to be taken care of and we need to change them quickly so that Croatian tourism will develop in the long term in line with the importance it has within the Croatian economy.

Croatia's employment situation is as paradoxical as other parts of life here, with so many out of work, and so many potential employers desperate for staff...