Stats Show Fewer Workers - and Fewer Jobless - in Croatia

Although recent statistics show Croatia had the biggest annual drop in the unemployment rate in the EU last year, figures also show the number of people in work in Croatia has also declined.

A report published on Tuesday by the EU statistical agency Eurostat said Croatia's unemployment rate fell from 15 per cent in December 2015 to 11.4 per cent in December 2016.

According to the same report, the number of unemployed people dropped from 281,000 to 206,000 in the country of 4.2 million residents.

While these figures look like good news, Croatian Bureau of Statistics, DZS, warned BIRN that although the unemployment rate had fallen, and although "the total number of unemployed [people] has fallen by 17.1 per cent", the total number of people in work in the same year had also fallen - by 0.9 per cent.

DZS explained that Eurostat uses a "harmonised unemployment rate", calculating the results of surveys and registers unemployment compiled by the Croatian Bureau for Employment, HZZ.

Both the DZS and Eurostat use the definition of unemployed persons given by the International Labour Organisation, ILO, defining it as persons aged 15 to 74 who are: without work, are available to start work within two weeks and have actively sought employment during the previous four weeks.

According to the HZZ, the number of registered unemployed people dropped from 285,468 in December 2015 to 236,617 in December 2016, setting the registered unemployment rate at 14.8 per cent.

Some experts attribute the drop in unemployment mainly to emigration - Croats migrating to other EU states, mostly Germany, Austria and, in recent years, Ireland, in search of work.

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