Croatian Prime Minister Disagrees With Unemployment Stats

Croatia’s Prime Minister Zoran Milanović has questioned statistical data concerning Croatia’s youth unemployment rate whilst talking at the International Youth Unemployment Conference in Paris this week…

Although statistical data suggested that Croatia’s youth unemployment rate was as high as 52%, Milanović was not having a bar of it, although he admitted it was higher than the European average.

“Those statistics are misleading and not very accurate. We’ll have to see exactly what it means in Croatia that 52 percent of the active population between 25 and 29 are unemployed. This figure is unusual to say the least, Croatia has a youth unemployment above the European average, but is not that high percentage,” said Milanović in Paris, where 24 of the 28 leaders of the member states and the presidents of the European institutions gathered this week.

According to statistics from Eurostat in September, in the 28 member states there were 5.6 million young people up to the age of 25 unemployed. Greece (57.3%) and Spain (56.5%) were both above Croatia in third place with 52.8%. Cyprus (43.9%), Italy (40.4%) and Portugal (36.9%) followed, reports HRT.