Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v33i1.105
Revealing the Causes of Long-Term Youth Unemployment in Croatia – A Mixed Method Study
Tibor Kovač
orcid.org/0000-0003-2941-6934
; Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
*
Valerija Botrić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5482-7490
; Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Long-term unemployment rates, especially among the young, are at record low levels in the EU. However, despite continuously posting economic growth rates above the EU-27 average and low unemployment rates, Croatia’s long-term youth unemployment rate remains above the EU-27 average. The aim of this paper is to explore the predictors of long-term youth unemployment in Croatia in order to gain a deeper insight into the reasons for this adverse outcome. Our results suggest that higher adaptive problem solving, numeracy and literacy skills are associated with a significantly lower probability of prolonged unemployment among young people who had not participated in training over the previous 12 months. In addition, better social skills are also associated with a lower probability of suffering long-term unemployment, with their importance being recognized by both young people and Croatian Employment Service case workers.
Keywords
long-term youth unemployment; Croatia; soft skills; semi-structured interviews
Hrčak ID:
349546
URI
Publication date:
2.7.2026.
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