In 2025, Croatia will still require 70,000 seasonal workers

Since thousands of foreign workers are required to meet Croatia’s yearly needs, the country is becoming more and more dependent on them.

According to estimates, Croatia’s tourist sector requires over 70,000 seasonal workers to sustain its workforce.

According to the Croatian Ministry of Interior, 38,1000 Bosnian nationals traveled to Croatia in 2024 in search of work, making Bosnia and Herzegovina the country’s biggest source market for seasonal workers. With 35,635 workers, Nepal is the second-largest source market, followed by Serbia with 27,988.

But according to data from the Croatian Ministry of Interior, in January and February of 2025, Nepalese workers received the majority of work and residency permits among all foreign applicants, suggesting that they may soon overtake Bosnians as the country’s most popular foreign workers.

With 28,000 and 14,700 work and residency permits given to these two nationality groups in 2025, respectively, foreign nationals from other Asian nations, including India and the Philippines, are also progressively traveling to Croatia for employment

Construction workers received the majority of work and residency permits during this time, accounting for 75,000 or 36.3% of the total. The second most frequent cause for granting work and residency permits was tourism and hospitality, with 56,000 residence permits issued and another 28,500 offered to industry employees.

Croatian Workers Are Especially Needed in the Tourism Sector

Many professions, particularly those in tourism, construction, and trade, require seasonal workers. Given the increased demand for labor, it is anticipated that Croatia will similarly raise wages for seasonal and foreign workers.

The National Bureau of Statistics reports that the average wage in Croatia in 2025 was €1,361. Seasonal and international workers’ salaries cannot be less than those of a Croatian employee in the same role.

As of 2022, the first half of the year required roughly 30,000 seasonal laborers. This figure fell to 21,000 in 2023 before rising to 70,000 in 2025.