Croatia's registered unemployment rate dropped to 10.2 percent in February 2019, inching down 2.1 percent year-on-year, with analysts saying that the large discrepancy between the continued drop in numbers of jobless versus newly employed Croatians points to emigration and population shrinking as the main drivers of labour market trends.

The slight month-on-month drop came as a result of a drop in the total number of registered jobless people, which went down in February after it had been rising for four months in a row. In February, the number of unemployed Croatians was about 156,400.

Year-on-year, the unemployment rate in February 2019 was down 2.1 percent, which is also a result of a drop in the absolute number of jobless Croatians. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed people dropped by 18 percent, while the active population shrank by merely 1.2 percent.

However, the drop in unemployment rate did not come as a result of the economy adding more jobs, analysts of Raiffeisen Bank Austria said in their report, and warned that this is apparent from the fact that the massive drop in unemployment is far larger than an increase in numbers of those employed.

While the state statistics data shows that the numbers of unemployed people has been falling at double-digit year-on-year rates, in 2018 the number of employed Croatians grew by merely 1.6 percent compared to 2017.

The drop is therefore attributed to a combination of mass emigration and negative demography trends, i.e. population shrinking. Since 2014, the numbers of newly registered people at the employment bureau has been falling every year – both in terms of Croatians coming there directly after schooling, and those coming there after leaving some job that they had previously.

The spring months are traditionally used to prepare for the summer tourist season, which means the unemployment levels are expected to continue dropping in the coming months, as increasing numbers of Croatians are likely to look for seasonal jobs in tourism and all sectors related to it, including retail and services.