The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) has been rising for 15 consecutive months - in May 2022, labor demand was 43% higher than in May 2021 and 25% higher than in May 2019, so labor demand has significantly gone up compared with the pre-pandemic period, the Zagreb Institute of Economics (EIZ) said on Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted index for May, the EIZ said, indicates a 7% increase compared with the seasonally adjusted index in April this year. According to EIZ analysts, like last month, these positive trends are also the result of preparations for the coming tourist season.

The most sought-after occupations are salespersons, waiters and cooks, and about 16% of advertisements are related to seasonal jobs, which is above the annual average, the EIZ said. According to its data, about 44% of job advertisements offered fixed-term employment, while 40% offered permanent employment. About 1.5% of advertisements mentioned the possibility of working from home, and 2.9% targeted pensioners, the EIZ said.

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