ZAGREB (Hina) – Croatia had an estimated 1,706,000 people in employment in the first quarter of 2026, up 19,000 (1.2%) year-on-year, according to the Labour Force Survey released by the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on Wednesday.

The number of unemployed persons rose by 1,000 (1.2%) to 99,000, while the employment rate for people aged 15-64 increased to 68.7%, up 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6%.

Administrative records showed a lower unemployment rate of 4.6%, compared with 5.5% in the survey.

Of the 99,000 people classified as unemployed in the survey, 71.5% were registered with employment services, while 28.5% were not.

Meanwhile, 13.9% of those registered with the employment service did not meet the international criteria for unemployment.