OVI for February 2020: Highest increase in number of job advertisements in eastern Croatia

March 3, 2020

According to seasonally adjusted data, in February the OVI index recorded a -0.8 percent drop compared to the previous month, deteriorating from January when the index rose by 0.3 percent on a monthly level. The drop is even more pronounced on an annual level, as the recorded -4.1 percent compared to February last year represents the first index decrease in February in the last eight years. Nevertheless, after the index decreased in all four quarters last year on a quarter-on-quarter basis, the seasonally adjusted figures for the first two months of this year indicate a mild growth on a quarterly level in the first quarter of 2020.

Salespersons, cooks, and waiters are still the occupations most in demand, although all three recorded less job advertisements in February on an annual level. The largest decrease in number of job advertisements in absolute terms on an annual level in February was recorded for hotel/hospitality staff, cooks, and repair workers, while the largest increase was recorded for bricklayers, construction engineers, bookkeepers, and jobs in the financial sector. Compared to February 2019, there was a significant decrease in the share of job advertisements requiring secondary education (from 33.4 percent to 29.3 percent), while the share of job advertisements requiring higher education remained unchanged at 8.4 percent. In line with the current conditions on the Croatian labor market, the share of job advertisements offering permanent employment rose from 38.5 percent to 42.3 percent, while the share of advertisements offering fixed-term employment decreased over a period of one year from 44.6 percent to 41.2 percent. With regard to geographical distribution, the number of job advertisements decreased in the Adriatic regions of Croatia, by as much as -17.2 percent in the northern Adriatic and -9.5 percent in the southern Adriatic. The mainland recorded an increase in job advertisements, with eastern Croatia surprisingly in the lead with an annual growth rate of 4.7 percent. The highest positive contribution to the increase in number of job advertisements in eastern Croatia came from advertisements for bricklayers, economists, clerks, and cooks. Considering that central Croatia accounts for 53 percent of all job advertisements, this region had the highest positive contribution in February to the annual change in index value amounting to 0.6 percentage points.

 

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 2015). 

The index is to be interpreted in such a way that the values greater than 100 represent growth when compared to 2015, and accordingly, that the values less than 100 represent a decrease with respect to the base year. Index is seasonally adjusted using the X-12-ARIMA method.