The Online Vacancy Index (OVI) for 2024 indicates that labor demand fell by 3.2% compared to 2023, the Economic Institute in Zagreb reported on Friday. Analysts do not expect a significant decline in labor demand in 2025.
“The total number of ads in 2024 was the second-highest since 2005, when we began tracking the index, but it was lower than the record year of 2023. The largest decline in the index is now behind us, as it occurred during the first eight months of the year. In the last quarter, there was an increase of 1.4% compared to the previous quarter. Judging by monthly and seasonally adjusted data, the OVI index stabilized in 2024, and given the expected macroeconomic trends, no significant decline in labor demand is anticipated for 2025,” the Economic Institute noted on its website.
Shifts in Labor Demand
The greatest contribution to the annual decline in demand came from ads seeking low-skilled workers (down 1.1 percentage points), followed by those seeking medium-skilled workers (down 0.7 percentage points). Ads for high-skilled workers had the smallest negative impact (down 0.2 percentage points).
Consequently, the share of ads for low-skilled workers decreased by 1 percentage point to 14.5%, while the shares of ads seeking medium and high-skilled workers increased by 0.7 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively, during 2024.
Most In-Demand Occupations
The ranking of the top five most in-demand occupations saw little change over the year. Salespeople were the most sought-after, followed by chefs, who overtook waiters to claim the second spot. Warehouse workers and drivers remained in fourth and fifth places.
The largest positive annual growth in demand was recorded for accountants, teachers, and finance professionals. Conversely, construction workers, waiters, programmers, production workers, teleoperators, and teachers saw the largest declines. Among construction workers, bricklayers dropped the most, falling from 25th to 30th place, while pharmacists, civil engineers, and nurses climbed higher—pharmacists from 28th to 24th, civil engineers from 14th to 10th, and nurses from 22nd to 18th.
Shift Toward Permanent Employment
In 2024, there was a further increase in both the number and share of permanent contracts, primarily at the expense of fixed-term and seasonal employment. The share of permanent contracts reached 53%, a 4.8 percentage point rise compared to the previous year.
Regional Variations
All regions except Southern Dalmatia recorded a decline in job postings on an annual basis. Central Croatia led the decline, contributing 1.4 percentage points with a 58% share of total ads. It was followed by the Northern Adriatic (down 1.2 percentage points) and Eastern Croatia (down 0.4 percentage points). Overseas ads also fell by 29% annually, with a negative contribution of 0.7 percentage points.
Southern Dalmatia was the only region with a positive trend, achieving an annual growth of 6.5% in job postings, contributing a positive 0.9 percentage points to overall growth. The most in-demand occupations in this region included salespeople, hospitality workers, civil engineers, chefs, and teachers, while demand for warehouse workers, waiters, and bricklayers saw the largest declines.
About the OVI
The OVI – Online Vacancy Index – is a monthly index of online job postings developed by the Economic Institute in collaboration with the MojPosao portal. Its purpose is to provide timely information about the current state of labor demand.
The OVI is calculated by counting unique new job postings with application deadlines ending in the month for which the index is calculated. Since the data is based solely on postings from a single portal, the number of ads is expressed as an index (with 2020 as the base year).