The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) fell by 1% in July 2023 compared with the same month in 2022 and by 3.2% compared with June 2023, the Institute of Economics Zagreb (EIZ) says. Pročitaj više

“In July, the OVI index decreased by -1 percent on an annual level, after a mild decrease in May and a moderate recovery in June. Judging by seasonally adjusted data and index movements compared to preceding months, a drop has been recorded in three consecutive months: the decrease amounted to -3 percent in May, -6.2 percent in June, and an additional -3.2 percent in July. The second quarter thus recorded a drop of -2 percent compared to the first quarter, and the beginning of the third quarter also started with a decrease,” the EIZ reported on its website.

“However, we believe this is still a case of seasonal hiring being pushed towards the beginning of the year instead of during the tourist preseason as in earlier years, and does not mean that labor market trends are slowing down. This is supported by the 4.1 percent growth rate in number of job advertisements in the first seven months of 2023 compared to the first seven months of last year, and by the 5.6 percent growth rate compared to the previous seven months,” it said.

The most sought-after occupations remained the same as in July 2022 – salesperson, warehouse worker, driver, waiter, cook, and bookkeeper). Together they generated 1.7% growth in the number of job advertisements on an annual level.

The largest drop in demand was recorded for computer programmers, who fell from the 13th most sought-after occupation to the 24th, while demand grew the most for medical doctors, who advanced from 25th place in July 2022 to the 12th most sought-after occupation in July 2023.

The OVI is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the EIZ in cooperation with the MojPosao job search website. It aims to provide timely information on current labour demand.