Title page
Contents
Abstract/Résumé 4
Introduction 7
Raising skills for a more productive and dynamic workforce 12
Upgrading adults' skills 13
Engaging children in education from an earlier age 17
Ensuring schools provide solid educational foundations 17
Helping youth graduate into work 19
Making the most of immigrants' and returning emigrants' skills 20
Improving active labour market policies 22
Better linking activation and other social policies 23
Tailoring activation policies to regional needs 23
Social protection to support employment, inclusiveness, and well-being 24
Developing the minimum social safety net 25
Family policies to support higher quality employment and care 26
Wage setting to encourage higher productivity 26
Improving wage bargaining 27
Balancing protecting employees, flexibility and workplace relations 29
Minimum wage setting to support vulnerable workers' incomes 31
Improving access to housing to support mobility and well-being 32
Ensuring the pension system supports longer working lives and well-being in retirement 38
Supporting longer working lives 38
Financing adequate retirement incomes 41
References 44
Table 1. Croatia's rules on early retirement 41
Figure 1. Poverty has declined significantly 7
Figure 2. The structure of Croatia's workforce in international comparison 8
Figure 3. Raising the share of workers with advanced skills would address a key challenge 9
Figure 4. Croatia can further raise employment rates of younger and older adults 10
Figure 5. Low fertility and net out-migration contribute to an ageing and declining population 11
Figure 6. The labour market could be more dynamic 12
Figure 7. The share of low-skilled jobs has grown over the past decade 14
Figure 8. Few adults participate in training, partly due to programmes' cost and inflexibility 15
Figure 9. Croatia's education needs to improve, especially in mathematics and sciences 18
Figure 10. A significant share of young people is neither employed or in education 20
Figure 11. Croatia's spending to help people into work is comparable with peers and focused on job creation 22
Figure 12. Employment rates vary considerably across Croatia 24
Figure 13. Pensions rather than social transfers reduce inequality and poverty in Croatia 25
Figure 14. Guaranteed minimum income benefits are lower than in most OECD countries 26
Figure 15. Wages have been rising but are low relative to productivity 27
Figure 16. Croatia's wage-setting is relatively decentralised 28
Figure 17. Employment protection laws are somewhat stricter than the OECD average, and many dismissal cases end up in court 30
Figure 18. Minimum wages are near other countries relative to incomes and high relative to productivity 33
Figure 19. Housing prices have been rising in Croatia 34
Figure 20. A large share of dwellings is unoccupied yet many households are overcrowded 35
Figure 21. Croatia can increase revenue from recurrent taxes on immovable property 36
Figure 22. In Croatia, ageing costs are moderate, while relatively low pensions reflect shorter working lives 40
Boxes
Box 1. Policies to encourage emigrants to return 21
Box 2. Approaches to wage-setting coordination 29
Box 3. Australia's arbitration and mediation tools for managing employment disputes 31
Box 4. Two earthquakes in 2020 damaged housing and public buildings 35
Box 5. A recurrent property tax for equitable and effective use of property 37
Box 6. Selected features of Croatia's pension system 39