There were 103,000 jobless persons registered at the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) on Friday and about 101,000 on Monday, the Vecernji List daily reported on Tuesday, adding it is only "a matter of days" before the number of unemployed people in Croatia drops below 100,000.

The last time Croatia recorded such unemployment figures was back in 1982.

A drop in the absolute number of the unemployed to the figures from the early 1980s does not mean a drop to the then unemployment rate, because Croatia today has almost one million fewer inhabitants than it had at that time.

The labour shortage today is the number one problem of almost every employer. Among the unemployed are about 15,000 people with higher education in professions not sought after by the labour market.

Every fourth unemployed person is older than 55, and there is a similar share of the unemployed people who have been out of work for more than three years.

Most of the unemployed are women.