The latest data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics for December 2025 indicate the usual seasonal changes in the Croatian labor market.

According to the official report, at the end of the year there were a total of 1,717,302 employed persons in the Republic of Croatia. Although a slight decline in the number of employed persons was recorded compared with November, a longer-term view of the whole of 2025 reveals a positive growth trend compared with the previous calendar year.

Monthly trends and impact on different sectors

Compared with November 2025, total employment decreased by 1.0%. Such a decline is not unexpected at the end of the year, when certain seasonal jobs traditionally come to an end. It is interesting to note that the number of employed women was more resilient to these changes, recording a decline of only 0.3%, while the total number of women in employment amounted to 804,697. The majority of the workforce, namely 1,487,287 persons, is employed in legal entities, which includes companies, institutions, and various organizations. The rest of the employed are persons working in trades, liberal professions, or are insured as farmers.

A look at industries and activities

When we look at where Croatians work the most, manufacturing and trade still hold the leading positions. In wholesale and retail trade, including the repair of motor vehicles, 227,034 persons are employed, while manufacturing employs 224,121 workers. Sectors such as education with more than 133 thousand employees, and human health and social work activities with 114,999 employees, form the backbone of the public sector and show stability even in the winter months. The data show that it is precisely in these sectors, along with public administration, that women are represented in significant numbers.

Understanding the statistics: What do the numbers mean in practice?

To better understand these data, it is important to clarify what experts mean by the term active population. These are all citizens who are either employed or actively seeking work through the employment office. The registered unemployment rate, which stood at 4.6% in December, actually tells us what percentage of that active population currently does not have a job but wants to work. For women, that rate was slightly higher at 5.2%. Although the number of unemployed persons increased by 1.9% in December compared with the previous month, such fluctuations are a regular occurrence during the transition from one business year to another.

Interesting points from the report

Looking at the whole of 2025 compared with 2024, the labor market actually strengthened because the average number of employed persons increased by 0.7%. Particularly notable is the growth in employment in the information and communication sector, which has become one of the drivers of the modern economy. Also, despite the overall monthly decline, sectors such as real estate activities recorded significant annual employment growth of more than 5% compared with the same month of the previous year, indicating specific dynamics in that part of the economy.

Cooling of the labor market at the end of the year

The end of 2025 brought the expected cooling of the labor market, but the foundations remain solid. Although the statistics record a 1.0% decline in employment on an annual basis in December itself, cumulative data for the whole year show that there were still more jobs in Croatia than a year earlier. For the average citizen, this means that, despite seasonal fluctuations, the economy maintains stable demand for labor, with particularly pronounced stability in the female segment of employees.