Croatia Jobless Rate Hits Record Low

Croatia’s registered unemployment rate fell to 3.4% in May 2026 from 3.8% in April, reaching the lowest level since records began in December 1996. The number of unemployed persons declined 9.2% from the previous month to 61.3 thousand, while total employment rose 2.2% to 1.740 million. The labor force also increased 1.8% to 1.801 million. Paid employment in legal entities rose 1.9% to 1.494 million, while employment in crafts, trades, and freelance activities increased 4.1%. In contrast, the number of employed private farmers edged down 0.4%. Compared with May 2025, however, total employment fell 1.1%, paid employment in legal entities declined 1.5%, and the labor force contracted 1.7%, indicating that labor market conditions remained weaker than a year earlier.

Croatia’s registered unemployment rate fell to 3.8% in April 2026 from 4.3% in the previous month, marking the lowest rate since June 2025. The number of unemployed persons dropped 11.1% from a month earlier to a record low of 67.5 thousand, of whom 35.7 thousand were women. Employment rose 0.3% to 1.702 million, while the labor force declined 0.2% to 1.770 million. Meanwhile, paid employment in legal entities declined 0.2%, with the sharpest decreases recorded in mining and quarrying (-0.7%), manufacturing (-0.8%), water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-1.4%), construction (-1.2%), and professional, scientific and technical activities (-1.4%). In contrast, employment increased in agriculture, forestry, and fishing (0.8%), electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply (0.2%), accommodation and food service activities (4.5%), publishing, broadcasting, and content production and distribution (0.6%), and education (0.2%).

Croatia’s registered unemployment rate fell to 4.3% in March 2026 from 4.7% in the previous month, marking the lowest jobless rate since October 2025. The number of unemployed persons dropped 9.6% from a month earlier to 75.9 thousand, of whom 40.3 thousand were women. Employment increased 0.3% to 1.698 million, while the labor force declined 0.2% to 1.774 million. Paid employment in legal entities inched up 0.1%, led by growth in mining and quarrying (0.9%), manufacturing (0.4%), construction (0.7%), financial and insurance activities (0.2%), professional, scientific and technical activities (0.8%), public administration and defence (0.2%), education (0.5%), and human health and social work activities (0.3%). In contrast, job losses were most notable in accommodation and food service activities (-1.3%) and water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (-0.7%).