OVI index
OVI for September 2025: Change in labor market dynamics
October 6, 2025
In September, the OVI index recorded a decrease of -25.3 percent on an annual level, which is the largest drop the index has seen since the COVID-19 pandemic and represents the ninth consecutive month of decline. The seasonally adjusted index value also recorded a decrease compared to August, by -11.3 percent, somewhat higher than the -11.1 percent drop recorded a month earlier. Considering that the index decreased on an annual level in all three months of the third quarter, the quarter ended in the red, dropping by -14.7 percent compared to the same period last year and by -5.6 percent compared to the second quarter. Judging by the first nine months of the year, the OVI index has decreased by -9.7 percent compared to the same period in 2024. The fact that the index has been continuously decreasing for nine consecutive months suggests a change in labor market dynamics, which represents a shift from the previous years, when seasonal fluctuations were the dominant pattern. In the past months, we have witnessed a decline in labor mobility, an increase in agency employment for workers who are third-country nationals, and a higher proportion of job advertisements offering permanent employment.
The list of the five most sought-after occupations has changed considerably in the last year. Salespersons remained in first place, warehouse workers jumped from third to second place, bookkeepers from fifth to fourth, and clerks from eighth to fifth place. At the same time, waiters fell from second to third place. The largest positive contribution to the index growth rate in September came from job advertisements for employees in finance and production workers, while the biggest negative contribution came from advertisements for teachers, salespersons, cooks, waiters, and nurses. Just as the month before, teachers experienced the largest decline among the most sought-after occupations in September as well, falling by as many as 30 places. The drop in demand for teachers can be explained by the seasonal pattern. Following a strong growth in July, due to employment before the start of the school year, there was a natural decline in the number of job advertisements in August and September. The largest increase among the most sought-after occupations was recorded by mechanical engineers, who climbed the list by seven places, from 23rd to 16th place.
The share of job advertisements requiring secondary level education increased by 5.2 percentage points in September, while the shares of advertisements requiring low or high levels of education decreased by -2.4 and -2.9 percentage points, respectively. All levels of education made a negative contribution to the total number of job advertisements in September. The trend of a decreased share of fixed-term employment advertisements and an increased share of permanent employment advertisements is still pronounced. In September, 60 percent of job advertisements offered permanent employment, 5.5 percentage points higher than a year earlier, while 35.5 percent offered fixed-term employment, which is a decrease of -5.2 percentage points compared to September last year.
All regions recorded a decrease in the number of job advertisements in September, with eastern Croatia at the lead, with a drop of as much as -69.2 percent; followed by the northern Adriatic with -44.3 percent, the southern Adriatic with -33.5 percent, and central Croatia with -18.5 percent. Considering that central Croatia accounts for as much as 68 percent of all job advertisements, its contribution to the total decline was a high -11.5 percentage points. The occupations with the largest negative contribution to the index decline rate in central Croatia were teachers, salespersons, cooks, and nurses, while the biggest positive contribution came from advertisements for employees in finance, production workers, civil engineers, and construction workers.
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