Employment and unemployment rates vary significantly in individual Croatian regions, with the statistical region of Northwestern Croatia having the best indicators out of the three statistical regions.
The employment rate (the share of employed persons in the working-age population) in Northwestern Croatia in the first three months of this year was 46.2 percent as against the national average of 39.4 percent.
The other two statistical regions had significantly lower employment rates, with the Adriatic Croatia having an employment rate of 35.5 percent, and Central and Eastern Croatia having an employment rate of 34.9 percent.
A survey on labour force in the three statistical regions in the first quarter of this year, made by the Central Bureau of Statistics, shows that the surveyed unemployment rate (the share of unemployed persons in the economically active population) in Croatia in the first three months was 14.3 percent, calculated according to the methodology of the International Labour Organisation. In Northwestern Croatia, the unemployment rate was below the national average at 9.8 percent.
At the same time, the unemployment rate in the Adriatic Croatia was 14.4 percent, and as much as 20.9 percent in Central and Eastern Croatia.
The figures on unemployed persons from the labour force survey differ significantly from figures provided by administrative sources, namely the Employment Office (HZZ). According to the survey on labour force, the number of unemployed people in the first three months was by 88,000 lower than the number provided by the HZZ.
According to the survey on labour force, there were 652,000 employed persons and 71,000 unemployed persons in Northwestern Croatia in the first three months.
In Central and Eastern Croatia there were 381,000 employed and 101,000 unemployed persons, and in the Adriatic Croatia there were 443,000 employed and 74,000 unemployed persons.
The statistical region of Northwestern Croatia also had the highest share of the working-age population (people above the age of 15) - 1,411,000 or 37.6 percent of the total working-age population in the country.
The Adriatic Croatia had 1,247,000 people above the age of 15, or 33.3 percent, while Central and Eastern Croatia had 1,093,000 working-age people or 29.1 percent of Croatia's total working-age population.
