OVI index
OVI for July 2025: Strong growth in demand for teachers
August 25, 2025
The OVI index recorded a drop for the seventh month in a row, but at the lowest rate this year, -2.0 percent on an annual level. However, seasonally adjusted data point to a growth in the index value of 4.8 percent compared to the previous month, similar to June, when the index rose by 6.6 percent on a monthly level. Cumulatively, therefore, the decline since the end of last year amounts to -1.7 percent, and when observed by quarters, the first two are in the red, while the third quarter has been positive for now, which points to a possible growth in activity in the third quarter, provided that positive values are recorded in August and September.
The five most sought-after occupations have remained the same in the last year, but the positions have changed. Salespersons remained the most sought-after occupation, drivers climbed from third to second place, while waiters jumped from fifth to third place. At the same time, warehouse workers fell from second to fourth place, and cooks from fourth to fifth place. The biggest positive contribution to the index growth rate in July came from job advertisements for teachers, employees in finance, and waiters, and the biggest negative contribution came from advertisements for salespersons (-2.4 percentage points), while advertisements for IT workers, medical doctors/dentists, nurses, and warehouse workers contributed collectively by -1.7 percentage points. Economists had the biggest decline among the most sought-after occupations, falling by five places, from 25th to 30th place. The largest increase among the most sought-after occupations was recorded by teachers, who climbed the list by as much as 16 places, from 31st to 15th place.
The share of job advertisements requiring secondary level education mildly weakened its decline trend in July, as it decreased by only -0.4 percentage points, but the share of advertisements requiring high levels of education rose by 0.8 percentage points. At the same time, the biggest negative contribution to the total number of job advertisements came from job advertisements requiring secondary level education, by -2.7 percentage points. The decrease in demand for seasonal workers ended after a long time, as the number of job advertisements offering seasonal employment rose by 0.6 percent over the year, mildly increasing their share to 8.7 percent. The trend of a decreased share of fixed-term employment advertisements and an increased share of permanent employment advertisements is still pronounced.
A decrease in the number of job advertisements in July was recorded only in the region of the southern Adriatic, amounting to -8.1 percent, while other parts of Croatia recorded an increase in the number of job advertisements in the last year. The occupations with the largest negative contribution to the index decline rate in the southern Adriatic were salespersons, warehouse workers, and medical doctors/dentists, while the biggest positive contribution came from advertisements for hotel/hospitality staff, civil engineers, clerks, and telecommunications staff. In central Croatia, which accounts for 60 percent of all job advertisements, the highest increase in the number of job advertisements was recorded for teachers and employees in finance, while the biggest decrease was recorded for salespersons and cooks.
What is OVI?
Online Vacancy Index (OVI) is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by the Institute of Economics, Zagreb in cooperation with the web portal MojPosao. The index aims to provide timely information regarding current labor demands. OVI index is developed by means of simple enumeration of single new job advertisements whose application deadlines end within the same month for which the index is being calculated. Given that advertisements published by only one web portal are taken into account, the number of job advertisements is expressed as an index (with the base year being 2020).The index is to be interpreted in such a way that the values greater than 100 represent growth when compared to 2020, and accordingly, that the values less than 100 represent a decrease with respect to the base year. The index is seasonally adjusted using the X-12-ARIMA method.
Otvorena dozvola RH