OVI for November 2022: Labor market still robust

December 5, 2022

According to seasonally adjusted data, OVI index recorded a 3.2 percent increase in November compared to the previous month, which is the biggest monthly increase since May this year. Growth on an annual level, compared to November 2021, amounted to 10.8 percent, which is among the lowest growth rates this year, if we do not take summer months into account. After the index rose in the first and the second quarter this year, compared to the previous quarter, a drop has been recorded in the third quarter, while data for October and November point to probable growth in this year's last quarter as well. Taking everything into account, it seems that 2022 will be recorded as the year when labor demand significantly increased. Despite GDP drop in the third quarter this year, labor demand has been on the rise, and the labor market is still robust, at least when conventional advertising is concerned.

The biggest increase in the number of advertisements on an annual level in November was recorded for the occupations of bookkeepers, medical doctors/dentists, clerks and teachers, while the biggest drop was recorded for the occupations of IT specialists, programmers, production workers and drivers. Compared to November 2021, the share of advertisements offering permanent employment rose from 46.3 percent to 47.8 percent. Regarding geographical distribution of jobs, the number of job advertisements increased in all regions. Although the rise on an annual level was the highest in Northern Adriatic, 16.1 percent, Central Croatia had the biggest contribution in the rise because 60 percent of all advertisements concern this region. Compared to 2021, the number of advertisements from abroad decreased. 

 

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.