17,000 people over 35 Without Work Experience

Employment booklets without a single work day are a problem for 17,000 people over 35. Chances they find a job are minimal.

Namely, under such conditions chances of these people finding employment become minimal and so they belong in the most critical group of the unemployed.

When they are asked by the employer on an interview about their work experience, they know they will not get the job because their employment booklet is completely empty.

In that case they need to except work on the black market, which is usually underpaid, the Jutarnji list daily reports.

-People who have been away from the work system for a long time carry a stigma which suggests to the potential employer something is wrong with them, because no-one wanted to hire them before- considers Dusanka Mirinkovic Drace, legal advisor of the Workers` Trade Union Association of Croatia.

She added how employees mostly hire younger people who come straight from school, because of these reasons.

Pensions too low

For people without work experience the biggest problem become pensions which are too low, even for those who found employment in time.

-Without the protected pension, there is no insurance for the future of these people- explained Mirinkovic Drace.

Ana Knezevic, The Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia president, claims the problem lies in the absence of secondary professional qualification schools which would direct pupils in order for them to be more professional in their future employment.

-It is a fact that so many people over 35 years of age have no work experience is defeating for Croatia because these people are lost and no-one can help them- she concluded.