DZS: Survey unemployment in the second quarter at 15.5 percent

The survey unemployment rate in Croatia fell to 15.5 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared to 16.6 percent in the second quarter of last year, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) from the labor force survey.

The survey unemployment rate, based on the methodology of the International Labour Organization (ILO), was 2.6 percentage points lower in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2015, when it stood at 18.1 percent.

In the second quarter of this year, there were 295 thousand unemployed in Croatia, šwhich is 16 thousand fewer than in the second quarter of 2014. A comparison of unemployment data obtained from the survey with data from the Croatian Employment Service (HZZ) and other statistical monitoring based on administrative sources shows that in the second quarter of this year, the unemployment rate according to administrative records was higher (17.2 percent) than the survey unemployment rate (15.5 percent), statisticians report. During this period, the average number of unemployed according to the survey was 17 thousand higher than the data from HZZ, šwhich indicates a decrease in the number of unemployed persons registered with HZZ. Since the surveyed individuals reported their registration with the employment service, the comparison of data shows that out of a total of 295 thousand unemployed according to the survey, 243 thousand or 82.6 percent were registered with the employment service. The remaining 17.4 percent of survey unemployed were not interested in registering with the employment service.

At the same time, out of a total of 278 thousand registered with HZZ, 35 thousand or 12.3 percent do not meet international unemployment criteria.

According to DZS data from the labor force survey, there were 1.6 million employed in the second quarter of this year, šwhich is an increase of about 59 thousand compared to the previous quarter, and 35 thousand more than in the second quarter of 2014. Thus, the employment rate, which shows the share of employed persons in the working-age population, was 44.5 percent in the second quarter of this year, šwhich is an increase compared to the previous quarter when it was 42.7 percent, but also an annual increase considering that the employment rate in the second quarter of 2014 was 43.3 percent.

According to data from the labor force survey, in the second quarter of this year, there were 3.6 million total working-age population over 15 years old in Croatia, of which nearly 1.9 million were active (employed and unemployed), and 1.71 million were inactive. The activity rate, which shows the share of the active population in the working-age population, was 52.7 percent in the second quarter of this year, šwhich is 0.6 percentage points higher than in the previous quarter (52.1 percent) and 0.8 percentage points higher than in the second quarter of 2014 when it was 51.9 percent.