Some 80 percent of precarious workers in Croatia are employed on fixed-term contracts, while 12 percent have seasonal jobs, and 8 percent only working occasional jobs. Only 4.5 percent of them were hired through an employment agency, according to an analysis by economist Iva Tomic, a research associate at the Zagreb Institute of Economics.

Getting a secure and permanent job is becoming further out of reach for Croatians than for workers in the rest of the European Union. Precarious employment is more prevalent in Croatia than in the EU – last year, the share of precarious employees in Croatia was a high 7.1 percent out of the nation’s entire workforce, reported the Prvi Plan business portal on Monday.

On the EU level, the share of precarious employment in 2017 was 2.3 percent.

According to Eurostat, precarious employment refers to fixed-term employment of up to three months in length. Researcher Iva Tomic explained that precarious employment is also marked by low income and workplace security, unfavourable working conditions, and limited access to social safety nets.

Some experts, however, sometimes also describe standard forms of employment as precarious, in cases of jobs with low wages, unpaid overtimes and such, with one key difference: when non-standard employment was consciously chosen by the worker, it can not be considered precarious. Unsurprisingly, some 81 percent of precarious workers are employed in the private sector, while the remaining 9 percent work in state-owned companies.

“In any case, precarious employment is increasingly becoming widespread in the Croatian labour market. There are several reasons why this is so – primarily, the 6-year-long recession has made employers much more cautious, as due to uncertainty in the business climate, are unwilling to offer long-term hirings,” Tomic said.

She added that other reasons included labour law changes passed in 2013 and 2014 which made fixed-term contracts much easier for employers, and also the strong seasonality, in the labour market, as well as the Croatian economy in general. Tomis said that globalisation and technological progress also played a part, as they helped introduce new forms of employment, such as freelance jobs, or working from home.

All these factors combined to create a climate where short-term and insecure employment, i.e. precarious employment, is increasingly becoming a significant part of the economy.

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