ZAGREB, 10 Jan 2022 - The unemployment rate in the European Union (EU), the euro area, and Croatia in November dropped to its lowest level since March 2020 and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by Eurostat released on Monday.

The European Union's unemployment rate, measured by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) methodology, in November, fell by 0.2 percentage points compared to the month before, to 6.5%.

In the euro area, it slid by 0.1 percentage point to 7.2%.

In both areas, the joblessness rate thus reached its lowest level since March 2020, when COVID-19 started spreading across the world.

According to Eurostat, there were 13.984 million unemployed persons in the EU in November 2021, including 11.829 million in the euro area.

Compared to October 2021, their number declined by 247,000 in the EU and by 222,000 in the euro area. Compared to November 2020, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 1.659 million in the EU and by 1.411 million in the euro area.

In November 2021, Spain and Greece were the only EU countries to record a double-digit unemployment rate, of 14.1% and 13.4% respectively.

Croatia's unemployment rate, measured by the ILO methodology, dropped to 7.1% from a revised 7.3% in October. An earlier estimate for October indicated an unemployment rate of 7%.

That is the lowest unemployment rate since the outbreak of coronavirus in March 2020, when it was 6.5%. In the February before the pandemic, it was 5.9%.

In November, Croatia thus ranked alongside Finland and Latvia, which had unemployment of 7.2% and 7.3% respectively.

There were 127,000 unemployed persons in Croatia in November, according to Eurostat, or 4,000 fewer than in October. Compared to November 2020, their number decreased by 26,000.

The lowest unemployment rate in November was registered by the Czech Republic, of 2.2%. It was followed by the Netherlands (2.7%), Poland (3%), and Germany (3.2%).

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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.

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ZAGREB, 23 Aug 2021 - In Croatia, the list of top ten cities in terms of the number of employees per 1,000 inhabitants include Varaždin, Čakovec, Zabok, Prelog, Sveta Nedelja, Koprivnica, Krk, Poreč, Dubrovnik, and Vinkovci, according to the data released by the national statistical office (DZS) on Monday.

The information about this ranking of the top 10 cities was released by the local authorities in Vinkovci that boasted that this eastern Croatian city made the top ten in terms of the number of workers per 1,000 inhabitants.

The list is topped by the northern city of Varaždin (630 employees per 1,000) and is followed by another two northern cities, Čakovec  (571) and Zabok (525).

Vinkovci has 401 employees per 1,000 residents, which ranks it in 10th place.

The ranking does not include the capital city of Zagreb or any of the other three biggest cities: Split, Osijek, and Rijeka.

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ZAGREB, 20 Aug, 2021 - In July 2021, there were 1.59 million persons in employment in Croatia, which is 1.5% more than in June 2021 and 2.3% more than in July 2020, while the registered unemployment rate this July slightly went down, the national statistical office (DZS) reported on Friday.

According to the DZS, the number of jobless people in January-July 2021 dropped by 0.2% on the year.

The number of the jobless registered with the Croatian Employment Service at the end of July 2021 was 126,006, down 0.2% on the month and 16.8% on the year, with the registered unemployment rate set at 7.4%.

A total of 1.35 million people were employed in legal entities, which is 1.3% more month on month and an increase of 2% on the year.

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