ZAGREB, 7 June 2022 - The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) has been rising for 15 consecutive months -- in May 2022, labor demand was 43% higher than in May 2021 and 25% higher than in May 2019, so labor demand has significantly gone up compared with the pre-pandemic period, the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) said on Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted index for May, the EIZ said, indicates a 7% increase compared with the seasonally adjusted index in April this year.

According to EIZ analysts, like last month, these positive trends are also the result of preparations for the coming tourist season.

The most sought-after occupations are salespersons, waiters and cooks, and about 16% of advertisements are related to seasonal jobs, which is above the annual average, the EIZ said.

According to its data, about 44% of job advertisements offered fixed-term employment, while 40% offered permanent employment. About 1.5% of advertisements mentioned the possibility of working from home, and 2.9% targeted pensioners, the EIZ said.

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 labor demand.

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ZAGREB, 24 March 2022 - Croatia's cultural and creative industries have recorded sharp declines in revenues since pre-pandemic 2019, of 8.5 per cent on average, with some segments, such as music, film and art, having seen their revenues plunge by as much as 40, 35 and 25 per cent respectively, a conference was told in the eastern city of Osijek on Wednesday.

A study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Croatian cultural and creative industries, which the Ministry of Culture commissioned from the Zagreb Institute of Economics, also shows that some segments, such as video games, have seen increases in revenues since 2019, said Nenad Marčec, director-general of the Croatian Association of Composers.

Last year was still about 12% below the 2019 levels, but given that there were not many concerts and the tourism industry and cinemas operated at a reduced capacity, this is acceptable because a lot of revenues were generated from YouTube, Netflix and some other platforms that now have a large number of subscribers in Croatia. In 2015, there were about 2,000 subscribers to these services, and now there are 200,000, which is "a tectonic shift" that occurred during the pandemic and helped authors weather this crisis, he said.

Asked by the press what he expected from the new Copyright Act, Marčec said that it entered into force in December 2020 and would ensure the implementation of new directives on copyright on the digital market, which regulate the responsibilities of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for the use of copyright and make it possible for authors to get their fees. He said that these services had become multimillion companies that paid the authors hardly anything and the new law should benefit the authors.

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ZAGREB, 6 June, 2021 - Online Vacancy Index (OVI) for May 2021 is several times higher compared to May 2020, and comparison with May 2019 shows that labour demand was about 1% higher compared to the pre-pandemic level, the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) said last Tuesday.

From the perspective of OVI index, the labour market has been showing clear signs of recovery from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic for the third consecutive month, the EIZ said.

OVI index for May 2021 is many times higher than in the same month last year, but in May 2020, the labour market was extremely inactive due to strict antipandemic rules. However, a comparison of OVI index for May 2021 and for May 2019 shows that labour demand is about 1% higher compared to the pre-pandemic level. This is the first recorded increase in labour demand, compared to the pre-pandemic level, since the pandemic started, the EIZ said.

The most sought-after occupations in May 2021 were salesperson, cook and waiter, with a total combined share in labour demand of about 28%.

"The demand for cooks and waiters has recovered significantly, which is in part a result of relatively late preparation for the tourist season," EIZ analysts said.

OVI (Online Vacancy Index) is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the Zagreb Institute of Economics in cooperation with the web portal MojPosao.

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