Croatia is 42nd on Swiss International Institute for Management Development's 2022 World Talent Ranking, up seven places from last year, even though it has not improved the key elements of its competitiveness, the National Productivity and Competitiveness Committee (NOPK) lobbying group said on Monday.
The 2022 ranking of the Swiss institute showed that Switzerland remains the leader among 63 economies in attracting and retaining talent, followed by Sweden and Iceland. The ranking is based on a set of 31 criteria used to calculate the competitiveness of global economies.
The Institute for Management Development takes a three-pronged approach to measuring talent in economies: the Investment & Development factor measures the resources earmarked to cultivate a homegrown workforce; the Appeal factor evaluates the extent to which an economy attracts foreign and retains local talent; and the Readiness factor measures the quality of the skills and competencies that are available in a country’s talent pool.
Croatia’s best score was in Investment & Development, where it took 25th spot, up from last year’s 34th place. Croatia placed 4th in the pupil-to-teacher ratio in primary education and 1st in the pupil-teacher ratio in secondary education. As for apprenticeships, Croatia was ranked 58th. Croatia placed 54th in the Appeal ranking, after being 58th last year. Croatia was also ranked 18th in terms of cost of living and 60th in brain drain.
“Such a low ranking is not surprising given that the tax pressure on the wages of highly-skilled personnel is higher than in comparable countries… Since Croatia is one of five European countries with the most severe labor shortage, such a high brain drain, and increasingly few highly-skilled personnel bring into question the sustainability of the economy” the state news platform Hina said, citing a press release from NOPK.
“In the last decade Croatia lost one tenth of its population, and in the past eight years the number of secondary school pupils dropped by almost 20 percent,” the unsigned press release from NOPK said, calling for “immediately creating a stimulating labor market” and changing “the rigid rules which force young people to go to more competitive and wealthier countries.”
As for the Readiness factor, Croatia ranked 46th, up from 54th last year. Croatia ranked 13th as to the number of graduates in ICT; engineering, math and natural sciences, and 57th as to readily available skilled labour and the international experience of senior managers.
The top ten countries in IMD’s 2022 report were Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany. The highest ranked non-European country was Canada, in 11th place, followed by the highest-ranked Asian country, Singapore, at 12th. The bottom five were, in descending order, Bulgaria, South Africa, Colombia, Mongolia, and Venezuela.
At 42nd place, Croatia was ranked behind Japan but in front of Botswana, Hungary, and Thailand.
