Job Vacancy Index OVI for March 2023 increased by 12 percent compared to the same month last year, marking the highest annual growth rate recorded since October of last year, reported the Economic Institute Zagreb, which also highlighted robust growth in labor demand in the first quarter of this year.
According to seasonally adjusted data, the OVI index recorded a slight increase of 1.3 percent compared to the previous month in March. Due to the high growth rate in January, the result for the first quarter indicates a still robust growth rate of 5.3 percent compared to the last quarter of 2022.
In March, salespersons were the most sought-after occupation, followed by waiters, chefs, warehouse workers, and drivers. Analysts from the EIZ noted that demand for waiters and chefs has actually declined on an annual basis. They also pointed out that the largest absolute decrease in the number of job postings on an annual basis in March was recorded in the occupations of programmer and designer, while the largest increase was observed among salespersons and teachers.
– The largest positive contribution to the annual growth rate of 12 percent came from job postings for salespersons, teachers, and clerks, while job postings for programmers and designers provided the largest negative contribution – they stated.
Increase in the Share of Permanent Contracts
Compared to last March, the share of job postings requiring a secondary vocational qualification significantly increased from 30.3 to 34 percent, while the share of postings requiring a higher education qualification also rose from 6.7 to 8.6 percent.
As in the first two months of this year, the share of job postings offering permanent contracts increased from 44.5 to 47.2 percent, while the share of postings offering fixed-term contracts decreased from 42.6 to 41.6 percent over the year, reported the EIZ.
Regarding the geographical distribution of jobs, the number of postings increased in all regions, with central Croatia leading with an annual growth rate of as much as 6.9 percent. It was followed by northern Adriatic with 2.9, southern Adriatic with 2.7, and eastern Croatia with 0.7 percent annual growth.
In all four regions, salespersons were the most sought-after occupation, while chefs and waiters followed in the Adriatic regions. In central Croatia, the next most sought-after were waiters and accountants, while in eastern Croatia, teachers and nurses were noted.
The OVI – Online Vacancy Index is a monthly index of online job postings developed at the Economic Institute in collaboration with the MojPosao portal, aimed at providing timely information on the current state of labor demand.
