The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) last week reported that there were 1.303 million workers in December 2014, 13,287 fewer workers or 1% down from the month before. The monthly and annual decline in the number of workers thus continued.
"In December 2014 negative trends in the number of workers contracting has continued constantly since September 2009. Compared to the same month of 2013, December 2014 saw a drop in the number of workers of 17,488, or 1.3%. Compared to December of the pre-crisis year 2008, the overall number of workers was down by close to 216,000 or 14.2%," RBA analysts said in a comment on the DZS statistics.
The average number of workers in 2014 was 1.333 million, which is almost 25,000 or 1.8% down from the average number of workers in 2013.
"Long-lasting structural problems on the labour market, a low level of business optimism and major obstacles to enterprise continue to result in a lack of more significant investment projects, which is why possibilities of new (self) employment will continue to be at a very low level in the period to come," the analysts said.
They also noted that without the recovery of the economic sector, improvements in the number of workers were unlikely, both in the medium and in the long run.