Croatia's Q1 survey unemployment rate 16.4%

Croatia's survey unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2012 was 16.4 percent, rising by 2.1 percentage points from the corresponding quarter of 2011, the Central Bureau of Statistics (DZS) has reported.

The country's survey unemployment rate in Q1 2012 rose by 2.5 percentage points from Q4 2011.

According to the methodology used by the International Labour Organisation in estimating survey unemployment rate, there were 273,000 jobless Croatians in the first quarter of this year, up by 27,000 from Q1 2011 and by 35,000 from Q4 2011.

According to the National Employment Service, 339,000 Croatians were out of work in Q1 2012, which was why the registered unemployment rate was 19.9 percent.

The figures and jobless rate estimated by the methods used for survey unemployment statistics differ from administrative statistics.

Thus, of those 339,000 people entered as jobless into the lists of National Employment Service, as many as 103,000 (30.4%) do not meet international criteria for being treated as the unemployed. (Hina)