While across the European Union every sixth pensioner continues to work after retirement in Croatia that number falls drastically to every thirteenth pensioner, according to new results from the European Commission.

Among EU members Sweden has the largest share of pensioners continuing to work, in fact every third retired citizen is active on the labour market. This trend is constant in two other northern European countries, Iceland and Norway, where almost two-fifths of older people remain on the labour market after retirement.

On the other hand, the smallest share of pensioners who, after retirement, continue to work is in Greece and Spain, only about two percent. In Belgium and Luxembourg, it is around seven percent, roughly the same percentage as it is in Croatia. These figures are well below the average across the European Union where around 16 percent of pensioners continue to work in some capacity after retirement.

Croatia can expect a change in this situation in the near future. After the amendments to the Pension Insurance Act, which came into effect on the 1st of January this year, retirees are able to receive retirement and work part-time at the same time. The shortage of labour force in Croatia, due to the demographic downturn, has been evident in recent years. Especially in activities like tourism and hospitality, trade, transportation, construction, shipbuilding and agriculture. Many of the holes in the job market could well be filled by Croatian pensioners. It is unrealistic to expect that pensioners can cover all the cracks in the Croatia labour market but with their experience they can certainly bring a new dimension and could be a valuable tool.