ZAGREB, 2 March 2022 - The EIZ Online Vacancy Index (OVI) for February shows continued positive trends on the Croatian labour market as labour demand increased by 72% from February 2021, the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) said on Wednesday.

"Positive movements on the labor market, which have been recorded since mid-2021, continue. According to OVI index for February 2022, labor demand is 72% higher than in February 2021, and 41 and 35% higher than in February 2020 and 2019 respectively," the EIZ said on its website.

The most sought-after occupations in February this year were salespersons, cooks, waiters, warehouse workers and bookkeepers.

The EIZ said that 43% of job advertisements offered permanent employment, while 44% offered fixed-term employment. Some 1.9% mentioned the possibility of working from home, while 3% of advertisements targeted pensioners, reflecting the trend of higher demand for pensioners in the past months. 

The OVI is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the EIZ in cooperation with the MojPosao job search website to provide timely information on current labour demand.

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ZAGREB, 3 Jan 2022 - The EIZ Online Vacancy Index (OVI) has shown that labor demand in 2021 was up 5.5% compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019 and the positive trend continued in December with labor demand up by 32% year on year, the Institute of Economics, Zagreb (EIZ) reported on Monday.

"Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the calendar year has ended with good news because the latest OVI index has shown a continuing positive image of the labor market," EIZ said on its website.

The OVI index for December 2021 shows that labor demand in 2021 was 75% higher than for data related to December 2020 and 32% higher compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019. This is the eighth month in a row in which labor demand has exceeded pre-pandemic months.

Labor demand in 2021 was 5.5% higher than it was in 2019 while the OVI index was 48% higher in 2021 compared to 2020.

EIZ reported that positive trends are also visible quarter on quarter with the OVI index for the fourth quarter of 2021 is as much as 60% higher than in Q4, 2020 and 20% higher compared with 2019 Q4.

The most sought-after workers were salespeople, cooks, waiters, warehouse workers, and drivers while 46 percent of advertisements were for fixed-term employment and 44 percent for permanent employment. In 2021, 1.6% of the jobs advertised offered the opportunity of working from home which is a significant increase compared to 2019. Prior to the pandemic, a mere 0.1% provided that option.

In addition, 2.6% of job advertisements in 2021 were for pensioners, up 1.2% from 2020 and 0.6% from 2019, EIZ analysts reported.

OVI is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by EIZ in cooperation with the MojPosao job search website. The index aims to provide timely information on current labor demand.

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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.

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