April 3 (SeeNews) - The coronavirus outbreak knocked down labour demand in Croatia in March, as only health care and construction saw a rise in job vacancies, a local think-tank, the Economic Institute in Zagreb (EIZ), said citing the results of its Online Vacancy Index (OVI) survey.
Compared to March 2019, the index dropped by 23.3%, while on a monthly comparison basis it was down by 18.5%, EIZ said in its monthly OVI report published on Thursday. OVI is a monthly index of online job advertisements developed by EIZ in cooperation with local web portal MojPosao.
"This is a strong decrease on a monthly level, which still cannot be compared to 2009 when OVI index registered a significantly bigger decline," it noted.
In March, the traditionally most sought-after jobs according to online job advertisements - sales assistant, waiter and cook - registered a decline by an annual 27%, 30% and 29%, respectively. Demand for other popular jobs, particularly in the services sector, fell sharply as job postings for hotel managers sinking 40% and for other tourism professionals plunging 50% on the year.
However, there was a strong increase in demand for certain occupations, particularly those related to providing assistance due to the pandemic and the earthquake in Zagreb, EIZ said.
A 5.3-magnitude earthquake that hit Zagreb on March 22, leaving behind considerable material damage and killing one person.
Demand for doctors and dentists rose by 38% on the year, job postings for pharmacists increased by 24% and advertisements for nurses were up 10%.
At the same time, the demand for bricklayers rose by an annual 67% and for construction workers it was up by 7%.