OVI Index: In February, the growth of job demand slowed down

OVI Index for February increased by one percent compared to January, which is significantly lower than January’s five percent, and the growth has also slightly slowed down on an annual basis to 1.2 percent, announced the Economic Institute, Zagreb (EIZ) on Friday, highlighting the increase in the number of ads seeking candidates with a secondary vocational education.

– According to seasonally adjusted data, the OVI index recorded an increase of one percent in February compared to the previous month, which is a significantly lower rate compared to January when the index rose by five percent on a monthly basis. On an annual basis, the index increased by 1.2 percent compared to February last year, which is the lowest growth rate in the last two years and indicates a slight slowdown – states the announcement on the EIZ website.

– However, judging by the seasonally adjusted data for the first two months of this year, moderate growth on a quarterly basis is expected in the first quarter of this year – estimate the analysts of the Institute.

Salesperson, cook, and waiter remain the most sought-after professions, although waiters and cooks recorded a decrease in the number of ads on an annual basis in February. The largest absolute decrease in the number of ads on an annual basis in February was recorded in the professions of programmer and cook, while the largest increase was observed among salespeople, teachers, and drivers, according to EIZ.

– Compared to February 2022, the share of ads seeking candidates with a secondary vocational education significantly increased (from 29.6 to 32.8 percent), while at the same time, the share of ads seeking low qualifications decreased from 10.7 to 10.3 percent – note the EIZ analysts.

As in January, the share of ads offering indefinite contracts increased from 43 to 45.3 percent, while the share of ads offering fixed-term contracts decreased from 43.5 to 41.1 percent over the year.

Regarding the geographical distribution of jobs, the number of ads recorded a decrease only in eastern Croatia, while the number of ads increased the most in the Adriatic regions, by 11.2 percent in the northern Adriatic and by 5.4 percent in the southern Adriatic, EIZ emphasizes.

They note that in the northern Adriatic, the demand for salespeople increased the most, while the largest decline was recorded in the category of doctors and dentists.

In the southern Adriatic, the largest increase in demand was recorded for the professions of salesperson, driver, and teacher, while the decrease in the number of ads was most pronounced for the professions of cook and waiter, concludes the EIZ announcement.

OVI – Online Vacancy Index is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed at the Economic Institute in collaboration with the MojPosao portal, aimed at providing timely information on the current state of job demand.

The OVI index is compiled by simply counting the number of unique new ads whose application deadlines end in the month for which the index is calculated. Since only ads published through one portal are considered, the number of ads is expressed as an index (the base year is 2015).