In the first quarter of 2018, Croatia was among European Union member states with the highest quarterly and annual increase in the number of people employed, while employment in the EU and euro area reached all-time records, Eurostat reported on Wednesday.

Seasonally adjusted figures showed that the number persons employed in Croatia increased by 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2018 compared with Q4 2017.

Croatia recorded the same quarterly growth in employment as Portugal and Luxembourg.

The highest jump in the number of persons employed in Q1 2018 were recorded in Romania (1.9 percent) and Malta (1.3 percent).

The number of persons employed increased by 0.4 percent in both the euro area (EA19) and the EU28 in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the previous quarter.

Eurostat said that in Q1 2018, 237.9 million people were employed in the EU28, of which 157.2 million in the euro zone. These are the highest levels ever recorded in both areas.

Compared with the same quarter in 2017, employment increased by 1.4 percent in both the euro zone and the EU28 in Q1 2018, after +1.6 percent and +1.5 percent respectively in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The number of persons employed in Croatia in Q1 increased by 4.6 percent on the year after a 3.8 percent increase in Q4 of 2017.

Only Malta had a higher increase (+5.3 percent) than Croatia on the year.

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