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At the end of April, 355,598 unemployed

At the end of April, the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) registered 355,598 unemployed persons, which is a monthly decrease of 3.5 percent, or 12,960 persons less, but on an annual basis, the number of unemployed is still higher by 9.8 percent, or 31,876 persons, HZZ announced today.

April is the second consecutive month in which a decrease in the number of unemployed is recorded on a monthly basis, as a decrease of 1.8 percent was recorded in March compared to February.

Such movements are generally typical considering the seasonality of the Croatian labor market, and seasonal employment related particularly to tourism is confirmed by HZZ data that nearly one in four persons found a job in the accommodation, food preparation, and serving activities in April, with the most hiring occurring in the Adriatic counties.

According to HZZ data, a total of 33,554 persons exited the unemployment register during April, of which 24,787 persons were employed, which is 6.9 percent less than in April of last year.

In April, the largest number of employed persons, 23,589, were employed based on the establishment of an employment relationship, while 1,198 persons were employed based on other business activities.

Based on the employment relationship, the most hiring occurred in the accommodation, food preparation, and serving activities – 5,741 persons or 24.3 percent, followed by wholesale and retail trade (13.6 percent), manufacturing industry (13.4 percent), then construction (8.6 percent), and administrative and support service activities (6.8 percent).

The leading counties in employment were Split-Dalmatia County (2,963 persons, which is a share of 12.6 percent), the City of Zagreb (2,090 persons or 8.9 percent), Istria (1,879 persons or 8.0 percent), Osijek-Baranja (1,799 persons or 7.6 percent), and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (1,709 persons or 7.2 percent).

During April, a total of 20,594 persons were newly registered as unemployed, which is 8.6 percent more than in April of last year.

Of these, just over 60 percent, or 12,566 persons, came to the register directly from employment, primarily from trade (21.6 percent), manufacturing industry (19.6 percent), construction (11.7 percent), accommodation, food preparation, and serving (8.2 percent), and education (7.7 percent).

The largest absolute number of registered unemployed persons is in Split-Dalmatia County (48,172 or 13.5 percent of the total number in Croatia), followed by the City of Zagreb (46,661 or 13.1 percent) and Osijek-Baranja County (37,574 or 10.6 percent), while the smallest is in Lika-Senj County (3,574, which is a share of 1.0 percent).

In April, one in five unemployed persons, or 73,672 of them, received cash benefits.