Labour demand in Croatia has exceeded its pre-pandemic levels for the fourth month in a row, the Online Vacancy Index (OVI) of the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) for August 2021 shows.

“OVI’s latest values are in line with other positive economic indicators published in the last few weeks. Labour demand has exceeded its 2020 and 2019 levels – OVI for August 2021 shows that labour demand is 60 percent higher than in August 2020, and around 20 percent higher compared to the pre-pandemic August of 2019,” EIZ said.

“When comparing labour demand levels in 2021 and 2019, this is the fourth consecutive month in which labour demand is higher than in the pre-pandemic months, which is a strong indicator of labour market recovery.

“Demand for the three traditionally most sought-after occupations – salesperson, waiter, and cook – is also higher compared to August 2019 and 2020, with drivers and construction workers also high in demand. Interestingly, the share of job advertisements mentioning working from home has risen to about 1.5 to 2 percent since the beginning of the pandemic, while before the pandemic working from home was mentioned in less than 0.25 percent of job advertisements,” EIZ said.

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.