The number of Croats paying pension insurance in April 2021 totalled 1,557,687, which was by 37,000 more than in April 2020, and also 12,162 insurees more than in April 2019, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Saturday.

The daily newspaper comments that although it is no surprise that this April’s pension contributors’ numbers are higher than in April 2020 when the COVID-19 epidemic started in Croatia, it is interesting that the figures are also higher in comparison to the last pre-epidemic April.

The figures provided by the Croatian Pension Insurance Agency (HZMO) about more than 1.55 million pension insurees are described as an optimistic indicator, and researcher Danijel Nestic of the Institute of Economics tells the daily that three factors have been crucial.

First, the job-retention schemes have prevented large-scale dismissals of workers from the economic activities worst hit by the corona crisis, according to his explanation.

Second, the government has increased employment in the public sector, he added.

Third, employment has been bolstered in several propulsive sectors whose business is thriving recently despite the pandemic and the earthquakes, or some of them have increased their activities owing to those circumstances, the researcher said.

The expanding sectors are construction, IT, business services including consulting and providing legal, accounting and commercial services, engineering, according to the daily.