The number of people in employment showed a year-on-year decline of 4.6% in June, according to new data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS). There was, however, a modest 0.4% month-on-month increase in employment to just over 1.5mn people.
The overall employment figure was clearly dragged down y/y by the contraction in Croatia’s dominant tourism sector, caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even though Zagreb has eased travel restrictions, employment in accommodation and food service activities was just 70.9% of the June 2019 level. This was by far the steepest drop of any sector in y/y terms.
Among the other sectors that showed y/y declines in employment in June were administrative and support service activities (86.7% of the June 2019 level), other service activities (90.9%), arts, entertainment and recreation (95.8%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (96.1%) and several others.
On the other hand, there were modest increases in employment in a handful of sectors, led by agriculture, forestry and fishing, where employment stood at 103.8% of the June 2019 level.